Book of Mormon: Day 237: Captain Moroni’s Challenge

Today’s Reading: Alma 60-61

9 But behold, this is not all—ye have withheld your provisions from them, insomuch that many have fought and bled out their lives because of their great desires which they had for the welfare of this people; yea, and this they have done when they were about to perish with hunger, because of your exceedingly great neglect towards them.

His Story

A young Asian college student stood in front of me in a long checkout line of strangers at the local superstore this past Monday.  My basket overflowed with school supplies for six kids.  My fifteen-year-old daughter stood next to me. We patiently stared into space, waiting our turn.   I looked at the conveyor belt ahead and saw some empty space to start unloading.  Looking just a little further, I saw two lonely items for this young man to purchase.  I saw a tall aluminum can indicating an energy drink, and a large bag of barbecue potato chips.

With a mischievous twinkle in my eye, I teasingly said, “I hope that is not your lunch!  What would your mother say?”  His hesitating response clearly indicated English as his second language.   I paused, and at another time and place I might have neglected the conversation and allowed it to dwindle into uncomfortable silence.  

This time I let myself feel his loneliness, his hunger.  This time I imagined what his mother actually would say.  I imagined how she might have “fought and bled out” her life to give her son this opportunity to study abroad because of the “great desire” she had for his “welfare.”  This time I let myself hear the prayer of that Japanese mother for her son.  This one time I saw my own son in a foreign country with a weak grasp of the language and standing hungrily in a checkout line of strangers with a can of pop and a bag of chips.  I ached for him to not feel neglected.  What if his mother’s story were my story?  What if this son’s story were my son’s story? [i]   

I casually stood next to him as he paid for his food and asked if he had any family here.  “Do you know anyone?”  I asked.   He looked down and whispered, “No.” Surely he must have wondered how I could speak so candidly about his loneliness.  I then declared my family would be his family and invited him to eat dinner with us on Sunday.  Now with a twinkle in both our eyes, we exchanged contacts in our cell phones.  We parted, not as passing strangers whose lives intersected for a brief moment in a store, but as two people who began the day as strangers and ended the day as friends.

My Story

I hope to live a life so I can say that kind of thing happens to me all the time.  Eventually I hope to reach the point where I go around effortlessly putting myself in their shoes.  However, I am still working on immediately doing what I feel prompted to do to reach out to the strangers around me.  Knowing I would be writing this post for nearly four months has made a huge difference in my journey of turning strangers into friends.  All because the words of Captain Moroni’s challenge from Alma 60:9 have echoed in my mind.

It is a challenge to: 

  • Acknowledge the “provisions” I have been blessed with by God and make a conscious effort not to “withhold” them.
  • See people as “fighting and bleeding out their lives” with “great desires” for the welfare of their families without the benefit of covenants and the perspective of the atonement.  
  • Consider how I might be responsible in some way, like Captain Moroni’s people, for their hunger because of my “exceedingly great neglect.”  
  • Ask the question Sister Linda K. Burton shared in her last conference message about immigrants: “What if their story were my story?” [ii]

Challenging myself with Captain Moroni’s words has done more to help me reach out in the Savior’s way to those around me than any other book on missionary work or talk on sharing the gospel.  And the beautiful thing is, I now have made so many more strangers my friends because his challenge makes me a better friend.  

So…What will you do with Captain Moroni’s challenge?  

#IWasAStranger

 

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