They Did Forget

One of the messages of the Book of Mormon is that when miracles and spiritual experiences come, we must not let ourselves forget them. This is seen of course in the story of Laman and Lemuel; they saw an angel, beheld the miraculous workings of the Liahona, felt the power of God, and even had times when they repented. But they couldn’t seem to remember this for very long. Nephi lamented to them, “How is it that ye have forgotten that ye have seen an angel of the Lord? Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten what great things the Lord hath done for us…. Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him?” (1 Nephi 7:10-12)  Indeed they let themselves forget, even convincing themselves that the miracles they had experienced were never real in the first place: “He worketh many things by his cunning arts, that he may deceive our eyes, thinking, perhaps, that he may lead us away into some strange wilderness” (1 Nephi 16:38). Nephi lamented that when they were on the ship, “They did forget by what power they had been brought thither” (1 Nephi 18:9). They just couldn’t seem to remember the Lord and His goodness for very long.

               In the days of Nephi, son of Helaman, as well as his son Nephi, the Nephites similarly struggled to remember the Lord and the great things He had done for them. Nephi lamented during a time of their wickedness, “O, how could you have forgotten your God in the very day that he has delivered you?” (Helaman 7:20) Later after the people had a terrible famine and the Lord miraculously saved them and ended the famine, they again struggled to remember: “And in the eighty and second year they began again to forget the Lord their God” (Helaman 11:36). Mormon lamented that after the Lord prospers His people, “Yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One…. How slow are they to remember the Lord their God” (Helaman 12:2,5). Soon after this the Lord started to show many incredible things to the people. They saw the miraculous preservation of Samuel the Lamanite “insomuch that they could not hit him with their stones neither with their arrows.” They saw Nephi who did show “signs and wonders, working miracles among the people.” At this time “there were great signs given unto the people, and wonders.” And yet despite this, “Notwithstanding the signs and the wonders which were wrought among the people of the Lord, and the many miracles which they did, Satan did get great hold upon the hearts of the people” (Helaman 16:2,4,13,23). At this time they also had the incredible sign of the Savior’s birth with a day and a night and a day with no darkness. But even after that, they did again begin to forget: “The people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from heaven, insomuch that they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen” (3 Nephi 2:1).   

               These Book of Mormon passages, as well as others, should remind us that it is very easy to forget the Lord and the miracles and spiritual experiences that He gives us. We must guard against the tendency to forget what we have seen and felt and experience. Instead we should work to be like the stripling warriors who were “strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day” and like Shule who “did walk humbly before the Lord, and did remember how great things the Lord had done” (Alma 58:40, Ether 6:30). The Lord has indeed done great things for all of us, and we must strive to never forget.