Alma 5: Of What Fold Are Ye?

This week set me on a really interesting self-study, something I have needed. Recently, I found myself wondering who I am as an individual and how I want to choose to direct my life. Sometimes we get so caught up in our daily lives that we sometimes lose track of our own identity and our own state of being. I was realizing recently that I needed to rediscover that so that I could redirect myself down a path that will lead to where I want to end up. This week in Book of Mormon gave me a really great starting point for that quest. Our professor first challenged us to find our own pulse in five seconds. Naturally, most of us were able to do so pretty quickly. He then asked us to find our spiritual pulse. As one might expect, we all sat there unsure of what to do or how to find that.

He went on to say that our physical pulse is relatively easy to find, but we oftentimes feel lost when it comes to being able to measure our health and progression spiritually. He then told us that if we ever need a starting point for spiritual self-reflection, then we should read Alma 5. He counseled us to use that list of questions as an interview of sorts to be able to check ourselves. Following that class, I chose to go through Alma 5 and list out the questions that would apply to this self-interview. These are some of the questions I found:

           

·      Have you been spiritually born of God?

·      Have you received his image in your countenances?

·      Have you experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

·      Do you exercise faith in Christ’s creation and redemption? (with faith in the three pillars and in the Plan of Salvation)

·      Can you stand before God with a pure heart and clean hands?

·      Have you been sufficiently humble?

·      Are you stripped of pride?

·      Are you stripped of envy?

·      If you’ve felt to sing the song of redeeming love, can you feel so now?

Possibly my favorite question is offered in verse 39: “Of what fold are ye?” This makes me stop and ask who I have really enlisted to follow. Not just in word, but who do I follow in deed? Do I seek to use repentance and the Atonement to follow Christ? Or do I use pride and selfishness to fuel a path that will eventually lead to the devil? I think this is a question that we should all ask ourselves everyday. At the end of the day, can we look back and see works that demonstrated that we are of the Lord’s fold? Or are we acting in a way that leads us away from Him?

The beauty is that when we slip up and don’t do these things right, the Atonement is there to redirect us back down the correct path to and with Jesus Christ. We are so blessed with this beautiful truth.