Alma the Younger is talking to his son Helaman, teaching him about the Jaredites. Spoiler Alert: their story is at the end of the Book of Mormon, and everybody dies.
Just like the Book of Mormon proper.
Yeah. It's super sad.
Alma tells his son Helaman to guard the brass plates because they are precious. They contain the genealogy as well as the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He also tells his son Helaman a lot of really great, awesome lessons, one of which is to teach his children to not trust people with secret evil plans, but instead teach them to have an everlasting hatred against sin and iniquity.
It's kind of rare that somebody would embrace something like hatred, but I think the point is well taken. Hatred of evil is... well...
It's like having a strong desire to do good, and a strong repulsion to sin.
I want to be like that. I want to teach my children to be like that. It is important to me that I try my best every day to do and be a good person. That isn't always obvious.
Tonight in our scripture study we talked about the difference between strictly following commandments and strictly following ordinances. It turns out that sometimes commandments can contradict one another. They are kind of like principles - sometimes you have to follow the spirit, or trust your gut, or simply try your best but know you will fail. However, there are certain ordinances, aka precise religious acts, that we are both asked and required to do. Some ordinances are not required (they aren't "saving"). Some ordinances are absolutely required, and it is required that they be done in the correct way. For example, baptism. It isn't enough that my ancestors were baptized into some other church. They need to be baptized by immersion, either in person or by proxy, into Christ's church on the earth. It's just something that has to be done. For everybody. Billions and billions of souls - everybody who ever lived to reach the age of accountability (8 years old) have to be baptized. It's why family history is such a big deal to me.
The ordinances are important to keep strictly. They are part of a covenant, a two-way promise, that I make with God. I think that one way to teach my children to be repulsed by evil is to teach them, by my example, to love and cling to those covenants.
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