It's the Principle that Matters | Alma 17-22 | July 1-7 | Week 27

Hey, hey, hey! Welcome back to Primarily Scripture. I'm your host, Cindy Young, and I am so glad you are here. This is a beginner's guide to scripture study. We follow Come Follow Me. We're in the Book of Mormon this year, and I show you easy approaches so that you can go from reading your scriptures to studying them. I love the chapters this week. Alma chapters 17 through 22. We're going to backtrack just a little bit in our timeline, and we'll get the story of Ammon. Now, if you remember, Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah were wicked. And they went around trying to destroy the church. Do you remember this story? And then an angel came and they all repented and they started to teach the gospel. Okay. So then the sons of Mosiah asked their dad, King Mosiah, Hey, we want to go to the Lamanites. And that's where we pick up this week, starting with Ammon. The story of Ammon is a favorite of all primary kids. Why? Because Ammon goes and He becomes a servant to the king, and then the bad guys come, and to protect the flocks, Ammon cuts off the arms of anybody who tries to come and get him. Such a crazy story! Then Ammon is able to use this incredible experience to win the trust of these Lamanites, and they listen to him, starting with King Lamoni. And then King Lamoni What happens? He talks with Ammon, and he feels the spirit and he ends up feeling the spirit so strong that he just faints right there, passes out. So that's where I want to pick up right now. We're going to look at one of the amazing women in the Book of Mormon. We don't get full long stories of women in the Book of Mormon the way we do with men. Just a cultural difference that they didn't include the stories of women, but, I love this little glimpse that we get into the life of this righteous woman. So, I want you to turn with me to Alma chapter 19. We're going to learn about Lamoni's wife, the queen. And I wish we knew her name. We're just going to call her the queen. Now, as you read, one of the best things that you can do is to look for principles of the gospel. Do you know what a principle is? Let's think about the fourth article of faith: We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the are first faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. second repentance, third baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and fourth laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now, these last two, baptism and confirmation, those are ordinances, okay? The first two are principles. Do you remember what they were? First, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, repentance. Those are principles. But what is a principle? I'll tell you, President Boyd K. Packer said, "a principle is an enduring truth, a law or rule that you can adopt to guide you in making decisions." So faith and repentance are two of those principles. There are a lot of principles, like the principle of prayer, or integrity, or accountability. These are things that you can learn about that will help you to make choices. So as we read, I want you to look for gospel principles. Okay. Now, If you look at the free worksheet this week, it will walk you through finding these principles. But, we're going to kind of take a shortcut for the video, and we're going to skip ahead to verse 10, okay? Chapter 19, verse 10 says this, "And Ammon said unto her" (the queen) "Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites." Okay, so what was the principle? Did you catch it? Did you hear it? I'm gonna get out a colored pencil and I'm gonna mark it. Ammon told the queen she had great faith. So I'm going to highlight that: "thy exceeding faith." Exceeding means a lot. And there was something else in this verse I love! He said to her, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites. Nobody else has faith as strong as you do is what Ammon said. Okay. So let's think for a second. What does that mean? Who are the Nephites? Can you think of any Nephites that Ammon might know. Alma and Alma the Younger and Mosiah, these are people who have such amazing faith. They are leading the church. They're going on missions. They're doing such great things. And Ammon says, Nobody else has faith as strong as you?! How much faith would she have to have for Ammon to say that to her? Wow! I want to be like that. So as you're reading the scriptures, when you come across a principle like this, be sure you stop and think about it. Pondering is so important. All right, I'm gonna highlight this. has not been such great faith. Okay. So now that we know that she has great faith, let's back up a little bit and we're going to look for what she did that showed her faith, because knowing that she has great faith, isn't really going to help us unless we try to also build our faith to be like her. So now let's read what the queen did so that we can learn how to strengthen our own faith. And I'm going to use this same color of colored pencil to mark the things that show the faith. And that way, faith will be color coordinated in my scriptures. Remember, King Lamoni has passed out. He's fainted and he's just laying there. and it's been two days and two nights. So now in verse two, this is what happens."Now the queen having heard of the fame of Ammon, therefore she sent and desired that he should come in unto her." We're going to jump over to verse four, and it says this, The queen "said unto

The servants of my husband have made it known unto me that thou art a prophet of a holy God, and that thou hast power to do many mighty works in his name." What did she do? If she talked to the servants and they said, Ammon is a prophet and he has power of God. She must believe that's true. So she listened to people who had had experiences with Ammon. These servants had seen him cut off the arms of the bad guys. They had seen Ammon save the flocks. And so now the queen is listening to people who know. So I'm going to highlight "having heard of the fame of Ammon." She had heard about him, and she believed. Let's look at verse five."If this is the case, I would that you should go in and see my husband, for he has been laid upon his bed for the space of two days and two nights; and some say that he's not dead, but others say that he is dead,"(and then I love this part!) "others say that he is dead and that he stinketh and that he ought to be placed in the sepulcher," meaning buried." But as for myself, to me, he doth not stink." And I always laugh at that part. If there's something that you think is a little bit silly in the scriptures, it's okay to laugh about it! I could just imagine the queen saying, Hmm, does my husband stink or not? And it always makes me laugh. I love it. So besides the funny parts, what did the queen do? It might be kind of hard to figure out. She's asking him to go in and see the husband. Hmm. She's asking him. Do you think asking for help shows faith? I definitely think it does! If she didn't believe, would she ask for his help? She wouldn't. So asking for help demonstrates faith. Okay, let's see. Let's skip over to verse eight now.

He is not dead, but he sleepeth in God, and on the morrow he shall rise again; therefore, bury him not.

Believest thou this?" Ammon asks, Do you believe?

I have no witness save thy word, and the word of our servants; nevertheless I believe that it shall be according as thou hast said." She said, you know what? I have no reason to believe. No reason at all. Except that I listened to the servants and I listened to you. And I believe. No wonder Ammon said she had great faith. Let's highlight this."I believe." So important. So now let's recap. What did the queen do? She had heard about Ammon. She talked to people who had witnessed his power. She then talked to him and asked for his help. And what he said, she believed. Now, He wouldn't have told her that her faith was super strong if she didn't believe it with all of her heart. She didn't sit there saying, okay, maybe I guess that might happen. No, she believed 100%. She was all in. Now we have found the principle that the queen showed, faith. Great faith, right? And then we went back and looked at what she did. Now we can look at those things and try to apply them to our own lives. As you are building your testimony, you're going to have opportunities to listen to people. First of all, the prophet, right? And the 12 apostles. Also, we need to listen to Jesus Christ, and we'll find his words in the scriptures. We might be reading them, but are we really listening and hearing them? Who else could you listen to and believe? What about your parents or your bishop? What about your primary or Sunday school teachers? There are so many people who have had experiences and built their testimonies. Remember how the king's servants had seen Ammon's power. They had witnessed it. And so they knew. And so then the queen believed them when she talked to them. Just like that, there are people in your life who have had experiences with the gospel that helped their testimonies to grow. So, you get to choose, as you listen to them, are you going to believe? The prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, has said, "Faith takes work." Did you know that faith takes work? What kind of work could you put in to have a little bit more faith? And who are you listening to every single day? The Holy Ghost wants to help you and guide you. And if you listen and follow, then he'll be able to help you and guide you some more. But if you don't listen, then those promptings won't come. I wish I knew the name of this fantastic woman of faith, but I'm so thankful that we get to read about her. She had the kind of faith that I am trying to build still. It takes work to build your faith, and the way that you do it is by practicing. So every time you hear something about the gospel, you get to think, is this true? Do I believe? And if I do believe it, then what do I do next? There are more activities on the worksheet that can help you work through some of those things as you ponder how to apply faith. Looking for principles of the gospel and then pondering them is going to help you go from reading your scriptures to studying them because then you can take those principles and find how to make them work and let them be part of your own heart and part of your own life. So please, please will you go read your scriptures? And not just read, go study! Search and ponder and pray about what you have read, because the Lord has messages for you in the scriptures. Thanks for being here this week. I'll see you next time. Bye, friends! Thanks for tuning in to Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website PrimarilyScripture. com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time!