Past, Future, and Present: President Monson and Alma

In a conference talk several years ago, President Monson gave us a “treasure map” to follow with three parts to it: Learn from the past, prepare for the future, and live in the present.  He taught us that we each have a heritage and that it “provides a foundation built of sacrifice and faith. Ours is the privilege and responsibility to build on such firm and stable footings.”  He reminded us in looking to the future that if we are prepared we won’t fear, and that “It is necessary to prepare and to plan so that we don’t fritter away our lives. Without a goal, there can be no real success.”  President Monson encouraged us, though, to live in the present and not put off what needs to be done today.  He said, “There is no tomorrow to remember if we don’t do something today, and to live most fully today, we must do that which is of greatest importance. Let us not procrastinate those things which matter most.”  While remembering the past and looking to the future, we must focus on doing today the things that are most important.

               I was reminded of this talk as I read Alma 5 because I realized that, in a way, Alma taught the same three principles to the people of Zarahemla.  He started out his discourse to them by helping them to remember how the Lord had blessed their fathers.  He reminded them that they “were delivered out of the hands of the people of king Noah, by the mercy and power of God.”  He likewise spoke of how they were subsequently “brought into bondage by the hands of the Lamanites in the wilderness” and how “the Lord did deliver them out of bondage by the power of his word.”  Alma then asked them this important question: “Have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? (v. 4-6).  Like President Monson, he wanted to ensure that they had properly learned from the past.  Alma also invited the people to look to the future, particularly to the day when they would stand before God to be judged.  He questioned, “Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?”  He wanted his people to be able to look to the future day when they would be resurrected and realize the preparation needed for that day.  He asked, “Can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands?” (v.15, 19)  Alma invited the Nephites of his day and us as well to think about the preparation needed for that important day in our mortal journey; like President Monson he wanted his people to prepare for the future.  But he also asked them questions to help them focus on the present: “I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” (v26)  He invited them to act immediately: “Repent, all ye ends of the earth, for the kingdom of heaven is soon at hand” (v. 50).  Both Alma and President Monson’s teachings help us realize that what is most important are the choices we make today to honor the righteous who have gone before us and prepare for our future.