7 Now, these are the words which he said unto the people concerning the matter: I thank my God, my beloved people, that our great God has in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preach unto us, and to convince us of the atraditions of our wicked fathers.
8 And behold, I thank my great God that he has given us a portion of his Spirit to soften our hearts, that we have aopened a correspondence with these brethren, the Nephites.
9 And behold, I also thank my God, that by opening this correspondence we have been convinced of our asins, and of the many murders which we have committed.
11 And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do, (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to atake them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain—
12 Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren.
14 And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto us that we might not perish; yea, and he has made these things known unto us beforehand, because he loveth our asouls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the bplan of salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations.
15 Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us ahide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us bclean thereby.
16 And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall ago to our God and shall be saved.
Reading these passages I thought: What are some of our personal swords? Are there things we use to "slay" our bretheren and sisters that we need to bury?
Just as God did with the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, he will wash our "swords" clean through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We must bury them and take them up no more, even in the face of adversity when we think we may need them again.
All of this was interesting to me with the experiences I have had in the last week. I took myself on a date Friday night to the temple. Sitting in the Celestial Room I had something come to me very profoundly. There was a time in my life when I was not very kind to some people. Much time has passed, but I needed to bury the sword once and for all. I covenanted with the Lord that I would take care of it; and it was amazing, because once I did I rejoiced almost to tears. I felt the spirit come back stronger than it has been in a long time.
I really wanted to shout my joy from the rooftops. Joseph Smith's words today rang a vibrant sound for me:
"Come on, dear brother, since the ward is past,
For friends at first, are friends again at last."
I wasn't able to attend the whole lesson, but I can say that I have felt the power of forgiving in my life. Joseph Smith was the ultimate expample for us. The man who embraced and immediately forgave someone who did the most unkind things. The man who stood and spoke with power about the love of God the morning after he had been drug out of his home, tarred, and feathered.
Eliza R. Snow reported these words of the Prophet: "[The Saints] should be armed with mercy, notwithstanding the iniquity among us. Said he had been instrumental in bringing iniquity to light — it was a melancholy thought and awful that so many should place themselves under the condemnation of the devil, and going to perdition. With deep feeling he said that they are fellow mortals, we loved them once, shall we not encourage them to reformation? We have not [yet] forgiven them seventy times seven, as our Savior directed [see Matthew 18:21-22]; perhaps we ahve not forgiven them once. There is now a day of salvation to such as repent and reform.
"Suppose that Jeus Christ and holy angels should object to us on frivolous things, what would become of us? We must be merciful to one another, and overlook small things."
In the gospel of Jesus Christ we are perfecting the Saints; we are perfecting ourselves. Today I thought about how trite my prayers have been; how bold I have been to think that I don't have a lot to pray about; when indeed I have so much to pray for, daily sins to be forgiven of, and people to pray for. Our daggars, pocket knives, swords, etc. need to be burried. We must make a covenant to bury things in life and live a fresh life with faith in Christ. Joseph Smith said:
"... the spirit of confession and forgiveness was mututal among us all, and we covenanted with each other, in the sight of God, and the holy angels, and the bretheren, to strive thenceforward to build each other up in righteousness in al things, and not listen to evil reports concerning each other; but, like brothers indeed, go to each other, with out grievances, in the spirit of meekness, and be reconciled, and thereby promote our happiness, and the happiness of the family, and, in short, the happiness and well-being of all."
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