That Our Children May Know

As the Nephites and Lamanites became wicked again after nearly two centuries of righteousness, the people again began to be very wicked. They divided again into their different family groups, and Mormon recorded this: “They did not dwindle in unbelief, but they did wilfully rebel against the gospel of Christ; and they did teach their children that they should not believe, even as their fathers, from the beginning, did dwindle. And it was because of the wickedness and abomination of their fathers, even as it was in the beginning. And they were taught to hate the children of God, even as the Lamanites were taught to hate the children of Nephi from the beginning” (4 Nephi 1:38-39). Thus the wickedness of the people was perpetuated as the parents taught their children to not believe and to commit all manner of iniquity. Zeniff had described many centuries earlier this manner of teaching of the Lamanite parents: “And thus [the Lamanites] have taught their children that they should hate them, and that they should murder them, and that they should rob and plunder them, and do all they could to destroy them; therefore they have an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi” (Mosiah 10:17). The animosity of the Lamanites for the Nephites was preserved because the parents taught their children that it should exist. This behavior of the Lamanite parents should act as a reminder to us to be very careful of what attitudes and beliefs we pass on to our children as parents. Will we preserve those perceptions and patterns that are contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ, or will we break the chain and pass on only that which is consistent with His teachings? What beliefs through our actions and teachings will our children take with them to the next generation?

            Other scriptures help us see that it is, above all else, faith in Jesus Chrirst that we should strive to pass on to our children. Nephi wrote, “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do…. And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Nephi 25:23,26). Jacob similarly spoke of what he hoped to pass on to his children: “We labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents. For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming; and not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also all the holy prophets which were before us” (Jacob 4:3-4). It was faith in Jesus Christ that Nephi and his brother hoped to pass on to their posterity through their words and teachings. We see a powerful example of this kind of faith in the Savior being passed on in the story of the stripling warriors. Helaman recounted, “They had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it” (Alma 56:47-48). Paul also highlighted the faith that came down to Timothy from his mother: “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also” (2 Timothy 1:5). More than anything else, faith in Jesus Christ is what we should strive to pass on to our children so that they can face the challenges of mortality and know to what source they can look for deliverance and salvation.