Spiritual Experiences for the Wayward

Towards the end of the reign of the second Mosiah, a problem was brought before him by Alma.  The people of the church were complaining because “the persecutions which were inflicted on the church by the unbelievers became so great.”  It must have been a poignant and heartfelt meeting between the two of them as “Alma laid the case before their king, Mosiah.”  Both Alma and Mosiah surely felt great responsibility to help protect the members of the Church, but they also knew that it was their own sons who were part of the problem.  They perhaps wondered whether any action they took to protect the Church might further alienate them from their sons whose choices were opposed to the commandments of the Lord.  But they went forward with faith in trying to protect the Church they had stewardship over, even at the risk of offending their own children: “And it came to pass that king Mosiah sent a proclamation throughout the land round about that there should not any unbeliever persecute any of those who belonged to the church of God.  And there was a strict command throughout all the churches that there should be no persecutions among them, that there should be an equality among all men.”  Because of this action, “there began to be much peace again in the land,” for which these leaders undoubtedly rejoiced.  But surely Alma and Mosiah still wept over the hard hearts of their sons who continued in their wicked ways and were “a great hinderment to the prosperity of the church of God.”  Their actions to help the Church may have even worsened the divide between them and their sons.  They were left to do the only thing they knew how to help their sons: they prayed.  The angel who visited them would tell Alma, “The Lord hath heard the prayers of his people, and also the prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has prayed with much faith concerning thee that thou mightest be brought to the knowledge of the truth” (Mosiah 27:1-3, 6, 9, 27).  Mosiah was without question also praying fervently for his sons, and eventually the Lord responded with a miraculous call to repentance for Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah.    

               I think then this story of Mosiah and Alma teaches at least two things about helping children who seem to be rejecting the gospel.  The first is that we can still stand firm for gospel truths even when our family members reject them—we should not fear offending others by defending the faith.  The second is that there is a great power in prayer to provide spiritual experiences for those we love.  It may seem at first that the experience of Lehi with his two rebellious sons was very different than the experience of Alma and Mosiah with their sons, but the only real difference was how the sons ended up choosing and not the blessings that the Lord provided.  Lehi, like Mosiah and Alma, was bold in standing up for what he knew the Lord wanted his family to do, despite even the death threats from his sons.  He pled with his sons to choose the ways of righteousness, and “he went forth prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people,” prayers which surely included his sons (1 Nephi 1:5).  And the Lord answered Lehi’s prayers regarding his children in powerful ways: He gave them numerous spiritual experiences, giving them the opportunity to repent and use their agency to choose Him.  He sent them an angel to speak to them, “the voice of the Lord came and did speak many words unto them,” they witnessed mighty miracles in their travels such as the Liahona, and they were even shocked by the power of God so that they were led to exclaim “we know that it is the power of the Lord that has shaken” (1 Nephi 3:29, 16:39, 17:55).  But even with all of these evidences and potentially faith building experiences, they still used their agency to reject the ways of the Lord.  Alma and Mosiah received a similar answer to their prayers—the Lord sent an angel—but in their case their sons did choose to repent.  The Lord cannot force His children, but when we pray with the parental faith of Lehi, Alma, and Mosiah, He can similarly provide unmistakable spiritual experiences that allow the wayward the full opportunity to see His hand and choose to repent.