This is an LDS "how to study your scriptures" guide geared toward big kids, teens, or anyone who wants a little support in learning how to go from reading the scriptures, to studying them. This season we're diving into The Doctrine and Covenants and learning simple tips and tricks for how to study the scriptures on a beginner level with advanced results. And trust me when I tell you that even though a child can do it, you'll want to use these tips and tricks for the rest of your life! There are so many resources for studying the gospel, but be sure that your study includes PRIMARILY scripture.
Quorra joins Cindy this week to talk about the 2000 stripling warriors led by Helaman. They search for feelings, and have to use their imagination to find some of them. They mark their scriptures in different ways. Then they ponder the difference between faith and knowledge, and Cindy shares a story of a time when she was in a dangerous situation. Don't miss the fun bloopers at the end!
Don't forget the parable of the snowball: listening to someone else talk about the gospel is like having snowballs thrown at you. Reading the scriptures is like making your own snowball. Taking the time to search, ponder, and pray about what you've read is like rolling the snowball around and around so that it grows and grows. So don't just listen to me - please go read for yourself so your knowledge and testimony can grow and grow!!
Come Follow Me Old Testament Beginners Guide to Scripture Study The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints The Book of Mormon Doctrine and Covenants CFM 2026 Teens, Youth, Kids, Family Primary LDS Latter Day Saint Young Women Young Men Temple Aaronic Priesthood Scripture Study Study Tips
Cindy:
Welcome back to Primarily Scripture. I am Cindy Young, and today I've got Quorra here with me. We follow Come Follow Me and the chapters we're in are Alma 53 through 63. That is 11 chapters of wars and fighting and strategy and there's so much going on. We're going to focus on Alma chapter 56. Okay, so let's open up to that. Even though I have my worksheet that has some verses on it and some study ideas, I'm also going to open up my regular scriptures. That way when I find something cool, I can go back and mark it in my scriptures. Moroni is the chief captain over all the armies, right?
Quorra:
Mm-Hmm.
Cindy:
And he gets a letter from Helaman. And Helaman says, let me tell you what was going on, because I became the leader over 2000 young men. Do you remember this story?
Quorra:
Mm-Hmm. The two thousand young men, um, their parents all made a covenant not to fight. So, all the young men decided that they would go to war for them. So, Helaman decided to lead them.
Cindy:
That's right. If you remember Ammon, he taught Lamoni, and so many people were baptized. And they joined the church, and they said, we will never, ever, ever fight again. And they covenanted, and they even buried their swords deep in the earth. So now there's all this war happening, and they feel bad, because the Nephites are fighting for them, and they're like, oh, what are we gonna do? And their sons said, we will fight. We didn't make the covenant, so we can fight without breaking any covenants. And they chose Helaman to be their leader. Awesome. Okay. So there's more to that story that happened, but do you remember that when we study the scriptures, one of the tools that we use is to look for things, right? We want to search and ponder and pray about what we have read. So one of the things that you can look for is feelings. And it doesn't always say how people felt, but then that means you get to use your imagination and imagine what they were feeling. And as you use your imagination and look for those feelings, then you'll remember the story better. Okay? So let's do it. If we look on the worksheet, there's an activity called Search for Feelings. Can you read the very first question in that box?
Quorra:
How do you think Helaman felt about these young men that he led? Verses 45, 46 and 56.
Cindy:
Yes. Let's read those verses, and as we read them, we'll see if we can find how he felt about these young men. Okay? Do you want to start in verse 45?
Quorra:
Sure!
Cindy:
Great, and you can read it directly off of the worksheet or from your scriptures.
Quorra:
"And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that I never had seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites."
Cindy:
Okay, in that verse, how did Moroni feel about those young boys?
Quorra:
Um, that they were very courageous.
Cindy:
Very courageous! He's saying that none of the Nephites, not even the very best warriors, had ever been as courageous as those young men. So that's awesome that he was recognizing their courage. Okay, do you want to read 46 or should I?
Quorra:
Um, you can read 46.
Cindy:
Okay."For as I had ever called them my sons(for they were all of them very young)
even so they said unto me:
Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone; therefore let us go, lest they should overpower the army of Antipas." Okay, so there's a lot in there that the young men said to Helaman, but at the very beginning, there's a little bit there of Helaman talking about them. What does he say about them? What does he call them?
Quorra:
He calls them his sons.
Cindy:
Okay, does that tell you how he felt about them?
Quorra:
Yes.
Cindy:
How? That doesn't say a, feeling. Is that a feeling?
Quorra:
It tells you that he really, really likes them. And, like, really loves them.
Cindy:
Yeah. You wouldn't call somebody your family member if you didn't love them. That's awesome that Helaman loved these boys so much. That's so cool. Now that we've discovered how Helaman felt about the boys, how do you think those boys felt about Helaman?
Quorra:
Um, I feel like they feel the same way that Helaman felt about them because they call him their father.
Cindy:
Yes, there must have been so much love there. Okay, when I find love like that, you know what I like to do? I'll get my red or pink marking crayon or colored pencil, um, usually not a marker marker because felt tip markers will bleed, and I will draw a heart right in my scriptures. So that was verse 46. And look, I'll draw a heart like this. Can you see it?
Quorra:
A little bit. It looks black.
Cindy:
Oh, well, let me definitely color that in. Now, when you mark your scriptures, you might want to do a heart or something like that to help you remember that this is love. Or you could just highlight the words that you like. How do you want to mark your scriptures today? Because remember, your scriptures are your scriptures. You do it your way.
Quorra:
Umm. I usually like putting smiley faces.
Cindy:
Oh, that's awesome. I do that sometimes too, or I might just, um, circle the number. Or sometimes I do a little star on the side, there is no wrong way to mark your scriptures. Awesome. Okay, and then we also want to ponder the things that happen and ask questions about it to try to understand more. Now, there's something really important that happens in this story. Let's read verses 47, 48, 55, and 56. Those are the verses that are on the worksheet, so let's find out what happened. They love each other, and they're ready to go to war.
Quorra:
Okay.
Cindy:
So do you want to start on 47, or do you want me to start?
Quorra:
Um, I can.
Cindy:
Great, go ahead.
Quorra:
"Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them."
Cindy:
Have you been taught by your mother?
Quorra:
Mm hmm.
Cindy:
Yes, I know that you have. And, You've been taught by other people too. So when we read this, should we think, oh, only moms teach? Of course not. You're going to have moms who teach, dads who teach, and then also your primary and young women's and Sunday school leaders, your bishop, neighbors, all sorts of people. Okay, so they had been taught. Let's keep going."And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it."
Quorra:
"And now it came to pass that when[the Lamanites] had surrendered themselves up unto us, behold, I numbered those young men who had fought with me, fearing lest there were many of them slain."
Cindy:
Okay, what does that mean?
Quorra:
It means that, Helaman, he, counted the young men that had went into war with the people, how many of them were left.
Cindy:
Yeah, he was afraid, right?
Quorra:
Mm hmm.
Cindy:
And verse 56 says, "But behold, to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as if with the strength of God..." and the verse is longer than that, but we'll stop right there. Okay, what does this teach you about faith?
Quorra:
That if you have faith in God, um, and trust, um, He'll help you with things that you need help with.
Cindy:
I think we should highlight that. That sounds super important to me. So, that was in verse 47."They had been taught by their mothers that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them." Okay. Does this mean that every time you ever have trouble, if you have faith, then your trouble will disappear?
Quorra:
No.
Cindy:
Why not? Isn't that kind of what it says here? If they didn't doubt, if they had faith, then God would save them. And they were saved. None of them died.
Quorra:
You also have to pray, though.
Cindy:
Okay, so if you have faith and pray, then your prayer will always be answered exactly the way you hoped for?
Quorra:
No, it won't always be answered the way you hope for, but it will be answered.
Cindy:
Yeah, there is always an answer, right? Heavenly Father is not going to ignore you. But, sadly, I know some people who decided to leave the church because what they prayed for didn't happen. Somebody that they loved was sick. And then that person ended up dying. And it was really sad. And they felt like maybe they had been lied to, that the scriptures lied to them because if we have faith, we should be okay, right? What would you tell somebody like that?
Quorra:
Well, our prayers aren't always answered right away because... I don't know why. Um, but they aren't answered right away.
Cindy:
So do you think that if Heavenly Father has a plan that your faith can change Heavenly Father's plan?
Quorra:
No.
Cindy:
No, nobody's faith is going to change Heavenly Father's plan. Your faith can change yourself. It can help you to be stronger, right? You believe in God, but it's not going to change Heavenly Father's plan. Here's something that is really important that people sometimes forget. If you look in verse 48, they say,"We do not doubt our mothers..." what?
Quorra:
Knew it.
Cindy:
They knew it. So, there's a difference between knowing something and having faith. So, if you have faith, then you're hoping for something to happen, right? You think that this is right. And you have faith. And you can have faith that Heavenly Father has the power to save you. That's believing it. Of course Heavenly Father could do it, but you won't KNOW that you will be protected unless the Holy Ghost tells you that. There was a time when I was in danger and the Holy Ghost helped me to know that I would be safe. You want to hear it?
Quorra:
Yeah!
Cindy:
So I was primary president and I had a four year old boy in my primary and he got really sick and it was a contagious kind of sick. Like if somebody has cancer, you can't catch that from them. Right? But there are some kinds of illnesses that you can catch those germs. And the spirit told me that I needed to go visit this little boy. And so I called his mom, and she told me, don't come because this is a contagious illness and you have little kids and I don't want your family to get sick. Wouldn't that have been horrible if I went and got those germs and then came home and then my kids had to go to the hospital?
Quorra:
Mm-hmm.
Cindy:
That was a dangerous situation, and as I thought about it I prayed: okay, Heavenly Father, what do I do? And the spirit told me, you'll be protected; you won't get sick. And so then I went to the hospital and I wasn't scared at all of getting sick. I went and I talked with the little boy and I gave him a coloring book and some presents and it was so great. And even though I was technically in danger, I knew that I was safe because the spirit had told me that. And so do you see how my faith turned into knowledge? I knew that I would be safe.
Quorra:
Mm-hmm.
Cindy:
The same thing happened for these 2,000 stripling warriors. That they had faith and their mothers knew it. They knew that they would be protected. The only way that happens is if the Spirit had told them. Okay? So there will be times in your life where you do things by faith. And that's amazing and good! Awesome! Do things by faith. But until the Spirit tells you, you're not going to know. It doesn't mean you should stop having faith. It just means we don't know what Heavenly Father's answer is going to be. Right?
Quorra:
Mm-hmm.
Cindy:
Alright, so I love this story about the 2, 000 Stripling Warriors. Because it does teach us a lot about faith. If they had doubted and wondered, then they probably wouldn't have been protected. Because their mothers had the knowledge, but they also had to have the faith. And it worked together to keep them safe. Awesome. What's your favorite part of this story?
Quorra:
About how none of them died, I guess.
Cindy:
That is so awesome. How does this help you in your life?
Quorra:
Ummm...[thinking]
Cindy:
will you turn to the very first page of the worksheets? Okay, now look in this square right here. This is something that the prophet said. Will you read that?
Quorra:
"Each person who makes covenants and keeps them has increased access to the power of Jesus Christ. Please ponder that stunning truth. The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power. This power eases our way."
Cindy:
President Russell M Nelson said that in October of 2022. If you make covenants and keep them, you will be exercising your faith, and you'll be able to overcome the trials in your life. Such an amazing blessing. Quorra, thank you for being here with me today, and to all of our friends, Thanks for being here on Primarily Scripture! Please come back next week, and in the meantime, go read your scriptures. See you next time. Bye, Quorra.
Quorra:
Bye!
Cindy:
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! I got fuzzy hair right there. Disappear fuzzy hair. There we go.
Quorra:
It's a beautiful sheet of paper. Beautiful! Uh oh, did you drop something? Yeah. Dropped my pen.
Cindy:
There's that yawn.
Quorra:
and I can't get it because I'm scrunching my face because I'm closing my eye.
Cindy:
Better?
Quorra:
Mm-hmm my lips are stuck together.
Cindy:
Mine do that sometimes, too. Come on scriptures. Hey! Okay
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