Cindy: 0:05

Welcome back to Primarily Scripture. I am here with Vienna once again, and she has brought a friend. Vienna, tell us who you've got.

Vienna: 0:13

I have my cat, Ash. He loves to look at the birds outside of the window.

Cindy: 0:19

Does he go outside or is he only inside?

Vienna: 0:21

He's an indoor cat. He's a sweetheart.

Cindy: 0:24

Awesome. So he'll study scriptures with us for a little bit or maybe not. All right, so let's dive into the scriptures. Last week we talked about Ammon. Ammon went and taught the Lamanites, and so many of them joined the church. Thousands of them believed. So now we're in Alma 23 through 29. What do you want to talk about this week?

Vienna: 0:49

Um, they buried their weapons.

Cindy: 0:52

Yes. Awesome. So if you look on the worksheet, there are verses from Alma chapter 24, verses 16 through 19. Open up your scriptures or look at the worksheet and we'll start on verse 16 and I will read the verse and then Vienna will tell us what it means."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 go to our God and shall be saved."

Vienna: 1:33

The king said, my people, if the Lamanites will want to fight us, we will hide our swords and bury them in the earth. That way they will stay clean. And this will be proof that we never used them again. And if the Lamanites kill us, we know that we will be in heaven and with God, and we will be saved.

Cindy: 1:55

Awesome. Have you heard this story before?

Vienna: 1:58

I think so.

Cindy: 1:59

Where they bury their weapons?

Vienna: 2:01

I think I've heard like a modified version in like primary something, that like they didn't want to fight anymore, so they buried their weapons so that they didn't have to.

Cindy: 2:08

Yeah, and that's the basics of it, right?

Vienna: 2:10

Right.

Cindy: 2:11

Then as you get older, you can add more to the story. Because when we're teaching four year olds and six year olds, it's going to be totally different than the way that we teach ten year olds and twelve year olds, and then even different how you teach adults, right?

Vienna: 2:26

Mm-hmm.

Cindy: 2:26

So as you're getting older, you're going to learn more and more parts of the story. And that's exactly what Primarily Scripture is about, is helping you go from just like, I know a little bit. Somebody buried their swords because they didn't want to fight. To now, let's do a little bit more with it. So actually, as we read, let's look at the first activity on this page that says, Find a Spiritual Meaning. Will you read that paragraph and tell us what it says?

Vienna: 2:51

Look at the physical things that the verse talks about and then think of a spiritual lesson that you can use in your own life. I love doing this.

Cindy: 2:59

I do. I love doing this. This is one of my favorite ways to study! So fun! To like

Vienna: 3:05

find connections.

Cindy: 3:07

Yeah, if you look underneath that paragraph, there are three different things that I told you to look for. Weapons of war, that are talked about in verse 16. Buried in the earth, in verse 17. And sacrificed their life, verse 18. Okay, this is a physical story of things that they did. They had weapons, they put them in the earth, they were willing to die if necessary. Okay? Now, there's one lesson here, of like, they didn't want to fight, and isn't that good that they didn't want to fight? Awesome. But, just like we said, we're learning more and more as we're getting older, here's taking it to that next level, how we find deeper meanings. So, Could it represent something else?

Vienna: 3:51

Yeah.

Cindy: 3:52

Yeah, maybe. There might be, right?

Vienna: 3:54

Mm hmm.

Cindy: 3:55

But we gotta find them, so we have to ponder and look a little deeper. Dig in.

Vienna: 3:59

Uh huh.

Cindy: 4:00

Okay, so they took their weapons of war and buried them. What could that represent spiritually?

Vienna: 4:08

Um, what immediately lit up in my mind with this was, um, just like the concept of baptism, kind of.

Cindy: 4:18

Okay, tell me more.

Vienna: 4:19

Um, so a weapon of war, like a sword or like an axe or something is, is like a sin in something, or if like you've used it to like kill somebody, that's a sin. And then you bury it, like being baptized and it's washed away. It's not physically washed, but it's, you don't have it anymore.

Cindy: 4:41

It's not part of your life anymore.

Vienna: 4:43

Mm-hmm.

Cindy: 4:43

I love that! Oh, I love that. So if we look at the worksheet, it says Buried in the Earth, verse 17. Why don't we write right there, baptized or baptism. I'm going to grab a pen. Buried in the earth could represent baptism. Now, you might, on another day, think of a different meaning of what it could mean. And that's okay. The scriptures can mean different things on different days. Did you know that?

Vienna: 5:10

Yeah. Actually, I've kind of had something with that. I had a talk once. And I used a scripture, I don't remember it exactly, but I used that and I sat back down but she just kinda just leaned over and said like, we had the same idea. We, I used that line in my talk, too.

Cindy: 5:26

Cool.

Vienna: 5:26

And her experience was entirely different than mine, but we both went to the same scripture,

Cindy: 5:33

right. So you could use it and talk about it for one thing, and then she used it and talked about it a different way. That is absolutely exactly how the scriptures are supposed to be used. That's why they're here. Are there other things in life that can be used different ways?

Vienna: 5:49

Yeah.

Cindy: 5:49

Like what?

Vienna: 5:51

There's nothing that comes to my mind immediately, but I know there are some out there.

Cindy: 5:56

Well, let's think about, like, a spoon. What could you use a spoon for?

Vienna: 6:00

To eat liquid.

Cindy: 6:02

Definitely. What else?

Vienna: 6:04

You can use it to dig.

Cindy: 6:08

Definitely. My mom would get so mad at us because we would take her nice silverware out into the dirt. And sometimes we'd forget them out there and. She kept wondering, why are all my spoons disappearing? Where are they going? Well, they were perfect for digging, and so we used those. Could you use a spoon for a musical instrument?

Vienna: 6:27

Yes. Like you, like, put two of them, like, back to back and then, like, hit them on something.

Cindy: 6:32

Yeah. So there are three different uses for one tool that we just thought of. And you might think a spoon was invented for eating, but that's not all you can do with it, right? So there's the obvious use for a spoon. Yeah, eat your ice cream, eat your soup, right? But then what else? You can do it different ways. Same thing here. There's the obvious story of they didn't want to fight and so they were just peacemakers and they got rid of their swords. But what else could it be? So we can find other ways to use it. Okay, so we didn't write down what weapons of war could represent. Let's do that real quick. What did you say?

Vienna: 7:12

Sin. Weapons of war equals sin.

Cindy: 7:15

Okay. Let's get down to verse 18. Let's read that one, how about?

Vienna: 7:21

Sure.

Cindy: 7:21

"...and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives."

Vienna: 7:31

All the people did this as a promise that they would never kill anyone ever again, and they would rather die than break their promise.

Cindy: 7:41

Exactly. So sacrificing your life, being willing to die, is pretty strong dedication to not wanting to fight.

Vienna: 7:51

Very strong dedication.

Cindy: 7:53

Now, if weapons could represent sin, and burying them in the earth can represent getting baptized and making covenants to get rid of them,

Vienna: 8:05

Mm-hmm

Cindy: 8:05

do you think we need to die in order to keep our covenants?

Vienna: 8:11

No.

Cindy: 8:12

We don't have to die in order to keep our covenants, but is there something else that we might need to give up in order to keep our covenants?

Vienna: 8:19

Um, drink coffee, drink wine, smoke.

Cindy: 8:29

Yeah. So do you think that people who are coming into the church, if those are things that they did, and then they get baptized and make covenants, now they might need to bury those weapons of war or, um, get rid of those things. Sacrifice those things in order to keep their covenants, to keep the Word of Wisdom?

Vienna: 8:51

Yeah.

Cindy: 8:52

Do you think that would be hard?

Vienna: 8:54

Yes.

Cindy: 8:55

It could be! So that's one thing that you might need to give up in order to keep your covenants, if you're coming into the church. What about people who are members of the church? Can you think of anything that members do that might make you feel uncomfortable because you go, Oh, I thought you were a member of the church. I'm surprised that you would... fill in the blank.

Vienna: 9:17

Umm...

Cindy: 9:19

Is there anything that you might watch or look at or say or wear? You might not go and watch a certain movie because of what's in it, because you want to keep your covenants.

Vienna: 9:32

Mm-hmm.

Cindy: 9:34

Is that hard to do?

Vienna: 9:37

Yes, especially when you have peer pressure, like, if some of your friends go, well, I can watch it, my parents say it's fine, so why can't you watch it?

Cindy: 9:46

Yeah.

Vienna: 9:46

You have that peer pressure on you.

Cindy: 9:49

Okay, so what could we write on our worksheet? Sacrificing their life could represent what in our lives? Give up things to keep our covenants?

Vienna: 10:00

Yeah.

Cindy: 10:02

Okay. I like that. Give things up.

Vienna: 10:06

Um, this just popped into my mind like just now actually. Um, if you are planning on reading the scriptures every single night, then you have to sacrifice time that maybe could be spent with a friend or going to an arcade to read the scriptures at night.

Cindy: 10:23

Yeah, so we can sacrifice our time, we can sacrifice things that are socially accepted, right?

Vienna: 10:30

Yeah.

Cindy: 10:30

And all of this is so that we can keep our covenants.

Vienna: 10:34

Mm hmm.

Cindy: 10:35

Did you ever talk about this story in this way when you were four, five, six, seven?

Vienna: 10:41

No.

Cindy: 10:41

We're going a little deeper, aren't we?

Vienna: 10:44

We're definitely going deeper.

Cindy: 10:45

Yes. How do you feel when you go deeper into the scriptures?

Vienna: 10:50

Um, I feel like we're just like uncovering new hidden meanings.

Cindy: 10:55

And then once you find those, now you can apply it to your life and use it. And when something comes up and you're like, oh, should I watch that movie? You can remember this story and the spirit will be able to bring it right back to your memory, just like that, and help you to keep those covenants. Awesome. Okay, there are other things on these worksheets that can help you study and uncover even more treasures in the scriptures. So, for our viewers and listeners, go to the website PrimarilyScripture.com, and you can get them for free, and it will help you to find new ways to uncover those treasures in the scriptures. I'm Cindy Young. Thank you so much for being here. There are so many ways to study the gospel, but your study should be primarily, which means mainly, mostly scripture. So open them up and go see what you can find. Talk to you later, Vienna. Bye.

Vienna: 11:48

Bye!

Cindy: 11:50

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!

Vienna: 12:08

Ash is very friendly. He really likes to destroy carpet.

Cindy: 12:14

but you're, Oh my goodness.

Vienna: 12:21

He might not want to stay. He might not. All right, bye

Cindy: 12:26

kitty.

Vienna: 12:27

He like launched himself off of me. Bye cat.

Cindy: 12:33

I know. Okay. Shake it all out. Okay.

Vienna: 12:40

Get all out.

Cindy: 12:41

Yeah.

Vienna: 12:41

It'd be a great bloopers compilation.

Cindy: 12:44

It'll be so fabulous!

Vienna: 12:47

Fabulous.