Alma 36

Today we ready the wonderful chapter that is Alma 36. It is the most amazing chapter I have read thus far, it had me on the verge of tears at some parts. Every verse is so powerful and beautiful, I just kept thinking "this could be poetry". I could not stop highlighting everything I read!

The chapter is about Alma telling Helemen about his transformation from evil and wrong doing to being a prophet of God. Alma tells Helemen that when he set out to destroy the church of God an angel stopped him and immediately Alma fell to the floor. For three days Alma could not move or speak and the only thoughts that came to his mind were the images of all of the sins he has committed in his life. He compares the feelings of sin to being tourmented, which in biblical terms means twisted. He said his head felt as if it was being harrowed, and a harrow is a tool with spikes that turns up soil. The definition of harrow states "to cause distress to", which makes perfect sense in Alma's context. He also states that he feel as though his soul is being racked. A rack is a table that your hands and legs are tied too and with a single turn of a knob, your legs and arms and be stretched outward which sounds about as painful as it gets. When Alma humbly and totally goes to God to repent for his sins the experience he has is just beautiful. He describes the amount of joy he has as an equivalent to the amount of suffering he felt. My favorite verses that I read in the entire chapter were verses 21-22: "21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

22 Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there." I've only had one experience that I can compare this too in my life but the words that Alma says correlate so closely to my exact feelings that I have felt, it is just one more testimony of how true my church is. You feel nothing but regret until you pray but when you humbly and apologetically repent for your sins you instantly feel nothing but warmth and love. Not only do you feel loved but you feel love for everyone else surrounding you and you want them to be just as wonderfully happy as you are. My teacher played a little game with us in which she got out a bag of Kit-Kat's and said "These candys are my favorite so I think I'll eat one." She went on to describe how delicious it was and invited us to have a Kit-Kat of our own. I felt that it was a perfect example of the gospel (and not to mention that Kit-Kat's are my favorite candys as well ha), when you love something and it makes you very happy, you want everyone else to love it and be just as happy as you are.

Think about it, maybe you should share.

XOXO,

Chloe.