Jacob 6-Words of Mormon

Quotes of the Week:
"When our priorities are out of order, we lose power.  It takes personal revelation every day to help us prioritize and reprioritize and keep at bay the influences of the world that would draw us from what we are to do."

--Julie B. Beck, BYU Women's Conference, 4/29/10

"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. "

--Abraham Lincoln

 Further Reading:

Robert D. Hales, "Prayer," Ensign, 10/04

D. Todd Christofferson, New Era, 10/10

Jairo Mazzagardi, General Conference 10/10

M. Russell Ballard, "O Be Wise," Ensign, 11/06

Julie B. Beck, BYU Women's Conference address, 4/29/10 (click here to be directed to this talk)

Handouts:

Jacob 6:12--O Be Wise, What Can I Say More?

M. Russell Ballard, Ensign, 11/06
We need to thoughtfully allocate our resources of time, income, and energy. I would like to let you in on a little secret. Some of you have already learned it. If you haven’t, it’s time you knew. No matter what your family needs are or your responsibilities in the Church, there is no such thing as “done.” There will always be more we can do. There is always another family matter that needs attention, another lesson to prepare, another interview to conduct, another meeting to attend. We just need to be wise in protecting our health and in following the counsel that President Hinckley has given often to just do the best that we can.

The key, it seems to me, is to know and understand your own capabilities and limitations and then to pace yourself, allocating and prioritizing your time, your attention, and your resources to wisely help others, including your family, in their quest for eternal life.

Wisdom, defined in Webster's New World Thesaurus:

implies the ability to judge and deal with persons, situations, etc. rightly, based on a broad range of knowledge, experience, and understanding.

Jacob 7:2-4--Avoiding Anti-Christs

Ezra Taft Benson, CR, 10/63 p. 16-17
How to avoid being deceived:
1. What do the standard works have to say about it? . . .
2. The second guide is: what do the latter-day Presidents of the Church have to say on the subject--particularly the living President? . . .
3. The third and final test is the Holy Ghost--the test of the Spirit. . . This test can only be fully effective if one's channels of communication with God are clean and virtuous and uncluttered with sin.

Jacob 7--Avoiding the Trap of Sin

Jairo Mazzagardi, General Conference, 10/10
I remembered that a little farther down the path, we would find another post that had already been taken over little by little, almost unnoticed, by the vegetation that grew around it. I imagine that a post would not perceive that, despite its strength, it could be encompassed and destroyed by fragile plants. The post would have thought, “No problem. I am strong and big, and this small plant will do me no harm.”
So as a nearby tree grows bigger, the post does not notice at first; then the post starts enjoying the shade the tree provides. But the tree continues to grow, and it encircles the post with two branches that at first seem fragile but that in time intertwine and surround the post.
Still the post does not realize what is happening.
Soon, in our walk, we found the proverbial post. It had been plucked out from the ground. My little granddaughter looked impressed and asked me, “Grandpa, is this the tree of sin?"
I then explained to her that it was only a symbol, or an example, of how sin gets us.
I don’t know what the effect of our conversation will be on her, but it made me think of the many faces of sin and of how it sneaks into our lives if we allow it to. We must be alert because small choices can bring great consequences, just as going to bed early and waking up early have great consequences. Doctrine and Covenants 88:124 teaches us, “Arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.” Those who go to bed early wake up rested, with the body and mind invigorated and blessed by the Lord because of obedience.
What may appear to be of little importance, such as going to bed late, not praying for a day, skipping fasting, or breaking the Sabbath—such little slips—will make us lose sensitivity little by little, allowing us to do worse things.

Jacob 7:13-20--Signs

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 713-14
Signs are sacred grants of divine favor reserved for the faithful and concerning which the recipients are commanded not to boast.

Jacob 7:19--Second Death

Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 1:288
Second death, what is that? After you have been redeemed from the grave, and come into the presence of God, you will have to stand there to be judged; and if you have done evil, you will be banished everlastingly from His presence--body and spirit united together; this is what is called the second death. Why is it called the second death? Because the first is the dissolution of body and spirit, and the second is . . . a banishment--a becoming dead to the things of righteousness.

Enos 1:1-5--Repentance

John H. Groberg, Heroes from the Book of Mormon, p. 54
After [Enos] had paid the necessary price in effort and sincerity, he received his heart's desire, as recorded in verse 5: "And there came a voice unto me saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed."

Enos 1:4--Fervent Prayer

Harold B. Lee, Improvement Era, 10/66, 898
"Imagine anybody praying all night and all day." I replied, "My dear sister, I hope you never have to come to a time where you have a problem so great that you have to so humble yourself. I have; I have prayed all day and all night and all the next day and all the next night, not always on my knees but praying constantly for a blessing that I needed most."

Omni

From K. Douglas Bassett, Doctrinal Insights to the Book of Mormon
The small plates of Nephi were to contain the religious history of the Nephite people. . . . The fact that the writings of five men occupy such a small segment as the book of Omni would indicate this was a period of great apostasy--thus there were no new prophecies or religious teachings to be added to the record.

Omni 1:12-19

Most Latter-day Saints refer to the people of Zarahemla as the "Mulekites," although the word Mulekite does not appear a single time in the Book of Mormon. . . . Inasmuch as only descendants of Judah could serve as the rulers of the kingdom of Judah, Mulek and his descendants were of the tribe of Judah, Mulek and his descendants were of the tribe Judah. . . . The people of Zarahemla left Jerusalem within about twelve years of each other, and evidently spoke the same language then, yet about four hundred years later their descendants could not even understand each other.

Omni 1:20-22

The Book of Mormon does not specifically state when Coriantumr lived with the people of Zarahemla, but it would have to be sometime after 589 BC and before about 200 BC (when Mosiah and his group first came into the land of Zarahemla). The twentieth verse of Omni tells of a large stone that was brought to Mosiah and which contained an account of Coriantumr. However, this does not necessarily indicate that Coriantumr was still alive in the days of Mosiah; his stay of "nine moons" among the people of Zarahemla could have occurred decades or even centuries before the time of Mosiah.