Alma 53-63

(For an alternate lesson plan, follow this link.)

A BASIC THEME:  FREEDOM AND COVENANTS

In the war chapters of Alma (43-62), the word "liberty" is used 33 times, and the word "freedom" is used 26 times--two similar terms, for a total of 59 times.  The word "covenant" is used 26 times, and the word "oath" is used 12 times--two similar terms, for a total of 38 times.  As we read through these war stories, we can find a couple of themes among all these repetitive words, and the first one is:

Freedom is vital.

This applies to the entire plan of salvation, to societies here on earth, and to individuals.  Freedom is the very essence of the plan of salvation.  Without it there would be no progress.  Without it there would be no point.  It is important enough to go to war over.  Jesus Christ led us in a war in heaven and the cause was liberty over slavery.  Most wars here on earth are fought over the same thing.  Over and over in the Book of Mormon account, we can see that the Nephites "did think more upon...liberty...than they did upon their lives (Alma 56:47).

Fighting alone will not bring freedom, however.  Freedom is bought with righteous living, with the keeping of covenants.  This is what confuses a lot of people in our day.  The more we discipline ourselves to keep the commandments, which some see as restrictive, the more free we will be.  The more we give in to passions or foolishness, the more restricted our lives actually become.  So the second principle we see is:

Keeping covenants brings freedom.

One of the finest examples of covenant keepers of all time is found in the people of Ammon.  15-20 years before the conflict we read about in this week’s assignment, a group of Lamanites joined the church due to the missionary efforts of Ammon and his brethren.  They included the high king of all the Lamanites and two of his sons who were lesser kings.  At the time of their conversion, the king led them all to make an oath that they would never fight again, even in self-defense.  The reason for this oath was that they had been such a blood-thirsty people, the king did not think they could be forgiven of any more killing, even for a righteous cause.  (See Alma 24:16-18.)

They kept their oath.  Twice the other Lamanites came upon them and slaughtered them, and they offered no resistence.  Once, their massacre resulted in the conversion of many of their persecutors, but after the second time, the Lord told Ammon to remove them from the land of the Lamanites, and take them to dwell with the Nephites where they could be protected without having to fight themselves.  This they did.

Wars continued.  These people of Ammon (also known as the Anti-Nephi-Lehies) sent their support to the Nephite armies in the way of food and provisions, but they kept their oath to never fight again themselves.  After 15-20 years of this, however, they began to wonder whether keeping their oath was a good idea.  (Alma 53:13)  When they had been Lamanites, they were always moved to fight by anger and hatred for the Nephites.  Now they were “moved with compassion” to take up arms in defense of the Nephites—opposite reasons for engaging in war.  Helaman and his brethren (in present-day terms, the General Authorities) convinced them that the keeping of their covenant was vital (Alma 53:14).

In the midst of this difficulty, someone thought of something:  The young men of Ammon had been babies when the oath was taken, and therefore had not participated.  They would now be in their teens or 20s, an age at which they could take up arms.

These young men entered into a covenant in their new role as soldiers.  (Alma 53:17)  This was the exact opposite covenant their parents had entered into!  Their parents’ oath was to give up their lives rather than to ever fight again.  The young men’s covenant was to fight “in all cases” for liberty, even unto death.  Both covenants were righteous covenants and were motivated by pure love.

Who did this battalion of new solders ask to be their commander?  Helaman!  Not a trained army officer, but a prophet of the church.  (See entry on Helaman in the Book of Mormon Index.)  He was only in his 30s by now.  There is no indication that he had previously been a leader in the armed forces, but their trust was in the Lord, not in the arm of flesh.  Helaman, therefore, left his ministry and became a military leader.

Stripling Warriors today, from lds.org

THE FAITH OF THE STRIPLING WARRIORS

These young men, “the stripling warriors” or the “sons of Helaman,” are most well-known for their faith that they would be spared, despite their youth and inexperience.  They may never have remembered seeing their fathers go off to war, or practice any fighting techniques.  The only training they would have had would have been what Helaman gave them.  (Alma 56:45-48)  Even though they valued liberty over life and were not afraid to die, they did not doubt they would be delivered.  Why?  Because their mothers had taught them so.

Now I have a question for you:  Why on earth would their mothers teach them this?  Many, many of the Nephite soldiers who were valiant and righteous men died in battle.  Look just a few verses previous and read that a “vast number” of Nephite men had been slain.  Were these warriors less righteous; were they lacking in faith?  It doesn’t sound like they were.  (Alma 56:11; 60:12-13)  Teancum, for example, was a righteous soldier who was killed after he single-handedly assassinated the Lamanite king, Ammoron, in an effort to end the war (which actually was the beginning of the end of the war.  Teancum had faith in God and lost his life in a righteous cause.  In fact, never in the entire Book of Mormon is there another army recorded that did not lose men to death, whether for a righteous or an evil cause.  If these people of Ammon had access to the records of the Nephites up to that time (which they did—Helaman kept the records), they would never have seen a scriptural precedent for a righteous army being totally spared of death.  So why did their mothers impress this promise upon them?

I think the answer can be found in Alma 27.  After the second massacre upon the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, when Ammon asked the Lord whether he should take them to live with the Nephites, the Lord gave them a promise (Alma 27:12) that he would preserve that generation.  The stripling warriors were that generation.  Now, after 15-20 years of actively living the gospel, their mothers knew the Lord.  They knew he was a God of Truth.  They knew he kept his promises.

Why the Lord gave them this promise while letting others perish is one of those questions we can’t answer.  Perhaps He felt the people of Ammon had sacrificed enough with the loss of so many of their loved ones in the massacres.  Perhaps He knew they would rather fight themselves than send their children off to war, and this promise gave them great comfort in that situation.

Helaman also promised them that the Lord would strengthen them because they kept their covenants.  (Alma 56:8)  Being completely unseasoned, and properly under-trained warriors, they would need this help.

THE LORD FULFILLED HIS PROMISES

The Army of Helaman fought in three recorded battles to retake Nephite cities from the Lamanites, and participated in another conflict without fighting.  In each case they were successful because they and their parents kept their (opposite) covenants and followed the commandments.

Pre-Battle

Before the Army of Helaman was formally given a commission, two opposite areas of the Nephite country were under attack, one near Bountiful and one near Zarahemla.  Moroni and Lehi were leading the defense on the Bountiful end.  Antipus was leading the defense on the Zarahemla end.  Antipus needed help the most, so that’s where the Army of Helaman headed.  The Lamanites had taken four cities there, and Antipus had only 6,000 soldiers with which to defend a fifth city, the city of Judea.  The Lamanites were about to come against the city until they saw the 2,000 warriors coming to join Antipus; then they chickened out.  And here is the first time we see the promise of preservation realized.  (Alma 56:19)

Battle of Antiparah

The next year, in the 27^th year of the judges, they engaged in their first battle.  This is the battle we are most familiar with.  2,000 more Nephite soldiers had enlisted, giving Antipus a total number of 10,000.  The Lamanites had taken the city of Antiparah, as noted above.  The Nephites had made their cities into such excellent fortresses that they were very easy to defend, but it made it almost impossible to take one back after the Lamanites had conquered it.  So Antipus decided the only thing to do would be to draw the Lamanite army out of the city where they could fight them on even terms.  To do this, he set up Helaman and the 2,000 warriors as bait.  They were to march past the city, near enough for spies to detect, looking like easy prey.  The Lamanite army would then come out and attack them, but Antipus and the remaining 8,000 would catch them from behind and engage them in battle.

The plan worked except for one thing:  The Lamanites were a lot faster marchers than the Nephites expected.  The Army of Helaman had to really clip along to stay out of their reach, and the Army of Antipus couldn’t catch up from behind for two days.  Then, suddenly, Helaman realized that the Lamanites were no longer on his tail, and he had no spies back there to tell him what had happened.  He didn’t know whether the Lamanites were waiting to ambush them, or whether Antipus had caught up.  But he and his young men decided to go back and fight.  When they got there, Antipus had been killed, as well as most of the other leaders, and the soldiers were in confusion and fear.  The presence of the 2,000 with their leader Helaman buoyed them up, and they all took courage and won the fight.  In the end, the remaining Lamanites in Antiparah were frightened and deserted the city.  The objective was won, and the promises of the Lord were fulfilled.  (Alma 56:56 to “strength of God”)

The Battle of Cumeni

Their next recorded battle was a year or two later.  They were deployed to recover the city of Cumeni.  Once again, straightforward hand-to-hand combat was useless because of the fortifications of the city.  Antipus was gone and Helaman was now in charge of the whole group.  This time they placed the city under siege, and when the Lamanite supply train came, they attacked it.  They sent the prisoners from the supply train off to Zarahemla under guard.  Within a few days, the army within the city of Cumeni surrendered.  Now the Nephites had a huge number of prisoners which were very difficult to control with the forces they had.  So they sent them with a large guard off to Zarahemla as well.  The very next day, a fresh army of Lamanite soldiers arrived at Cumeni.  The number of Nephites left behind to guard the city were too few to manage the battle.  They sent a messenger to tell the guards of the prison train that they were under attack.  Unfortunately, the prisoners heard, took heart, and revolted.  Because they had no weapons, most of them were killed by the guards, but a few escaped.  The guards then returned to help Helaman with the battle.  They won, but it was a very sore battle in which 1,000 Nephite soldiers were killed.  Not one youth of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies died, but every single one was wounded.  (Alma 57:26).  Once again, why were they preserved?  (Alma 57:21)  It wasn’t just that they obeyed their military leader, Helaman; it was that they obeyed their prophet Helaman.

The Battle of Manti

Later in the year, they prepared to retake the city of Manti.  Due to the fall of the government, of which they were unaware, they had received no provisions or reinforcements for quite some time.  They were malnourished and small in numbers.  They had to come up with a very clever plan to be successful this time.

Like the other Nephite border cities, the city of Manti was mightily fortified.  After praying for God’s help to strengthen and deliver them once again (Alma 58:10), their whole (small) and receiving his renewed promise that he would (Alma 58:11), they came up with a plan.  They brought their whole (small) army near the city and camped, making it appear that they planned to put the city under siege, like they had done at Cumeni.  The Lamanites saw how small their numbers were and decided to attack them, rather than risk an ambush on their supply trains.  When the Nephite spies saw that the Lamanites were preparing to come out, Helaman split the small army into three tiny squadrons.  Two of the squadrons hid, leaving the stripling warriors as the decoy again.  As the Lamanites came out to battle them, the Army of Helaman began to retreat.  The Lamanites pursued.  The hidden squadrons cut off the Lamanite spies so they couldn’t return to warn the city, and then they attacked and conquered the city easily because very few had been left to guard it.

The 2,000 warriors traveled for days, with the Lamanites right on their tails.  Suddenly, the Lamanites realized that they were heading toward the big Nephite city of Zarahemla and decided they had better back off.  They camped for the night, intending to turn back to Manti the next day.  But Helaman commanded his soldiers to march all night, going around the Lamanite camp, so that they reached the city of Manti first.  When the Lamanites arrived and realized that the city was full of Nephite warriors now, they fled into the wilderness.  With very little bloodshed, the city of Manti was regained.  (Alma 58:39)

APPLICATION

We also will be strengthened and preserved as we follow the example of the people of Ammon and their sons, the 2,060 stripling warriors (60 more enlisted during the war).  (Alma 58:40)

·         LIBERTY:  They stood fast in liberty.  We can do this in the defense of our countries at war time.  We can also defend our religious rights from attacks of those who would remove them.  And we can resist giving away our personal agency to any sin or addiction on a daily personal basis.

·         MEMORY:  They remembered God, day to day.  They remembered what he had done for them in the past, and they remembered his promises for the future.  We can do the same through our church worship (specifically the sacrament and the temple), our daily prayers and scripture study, our patriarchal blessings and other blessings.

·         OBEDIENCE: They kept the commandments.  We have all covenanted to do the same and the keeping of our covenants will strengthen and preserve us as it did them.  Like the stripling warriors, we need to obey every word of the prophet with exactness.

·         FAITH IN CHRIST:  They had “faith in the prophecies of that which is to come.”

As the children’s song says, we must follow the example of the Army of Helaman with courage and conviction that the Lord will preserve us in our daily battles for freedom.

Here are a few links to "We'll Bring the World His Truth" (AKA "The Army of Helaman") Primary song on YouTube.

Brett Raymond's high energy version from his "Primarily For Grown-Ups" album  (This is probably also available on I-Tunes, if you want to buy it.)

Inside Out's mellow a capella version.

Real missionaries in Mozambique.

Four adorable little brothers singing unaccompanied in harmony.

Afterglow's version.

A slightly goofball but pleasant ukelele version.

 

Old Testament Lesson #46 "A Kingdom, Which Shall Never Be Destroyed"

Daniel 2

PRELIMINARY QUESTION

Ask the class to be thinking about this question (post it on the board):  "What is one thing you really like about Daniel or one message from his book?"  (You will ask for their answers later in the lesson.)

THE GROWTH OF THE KING'S TESTIMONY

"A God of Gods."  Chapter 2:  Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had a troubling dream which he could not remember or which he would not tell (v. 1-4).  (See footnote a in verse 5:  It is possible the original meaning was that he did remember the dream, but was testing others' ability to divine it.  Harper-Collins Study Bible also suggests this possibility on p. 1305, as does Ellis T. Rasmussen,  An Introduction to the Old Testament and Its Teachings, 2:92, quoted in the Institute Manual, Section 28-9.)  He was deeply impressed, whichever the case may be, that the dream was significant and he needed to know the interpretation.  He called all his wise men and priests and asked for the interpretation.  They answered, quite reasonably, that they could not interpret the dream if they did not know what it was.  Nebuchadnezzar did not back down from his challenge, however.  He offered "gifts and rewards and great honour" to them who could state and interpret the dream (v. 6), and a gruesome death if they failed (v. 5, 12).

The king's guard went forth to slay these men, and on their way, were intercepted by Daniel (v. 14) who asked what was going on.  When he heard, he went straight to the king to ask for himself, and to offer to learn and give the interpretation.  Then he returned to his quarters and shared the news with his three friends, and begged them to pray for him, as all their lives depended upon it (v. 14-18), and also the lives of the other wise men or priests (v. 24).  "Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.  Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven" (v. 19).

The story is inconsistent in that Daniel has direct access to the king in verse 16, and in verse 25 the captain of the guard brings Daniel to the king and introduces him as "a man of the captives of Judah," as if the king did not know who he was. Verse 16 is "widely regarded [by scholars] as a late addition to harmonize with Chapter 1" (Harper-Collins Study Bible, p. 1306). 

Oh well.  No one's perfect, and neither were the writers and editors of the Old Testament.    The contradiction doesn't affect the important points of the story.

When Daniel related and interpreted the dream, Nebuchadnezzar learned the difference between the idols of Babylon and the God of Israel.  Whereas the Babylonian priests defended their inability to respond by saying that no one could give this interpretation unless they were helped by the gods, and those gods do not dwell near enough to people to aid them (v. 11), Daniel showed the God of Israel to be immediate and personal, even in a foreign nation such as Babylon (Richard D. Draper, "The Prophets of the Exile: Saviors of a People," Voices of Old Testament Prophets: The 26th Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, p. 96).  The phrase "God of heaven" here used is a Persian title for the Jewish God (Harper-Collins, p. 1306).  Whereas the stars were considered to be some of the Babylonian dieties, The God of Israel was God even over them, by this definition. 

Daniel gave every bit of glory for the recall and interpretation of the dream to Jehovah (v. 20-30), thus introducing him to the king as a God of gods, who is invested in the doings of man, and who knows all, as evidenced by the fact that he reveals secrets (v. 19, 22, 28, 29, 30).  The dream itself showed that God could place and remove kings and define and direct empires.

The king's beginning testimony:  "Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets" (v. 47).

A God who can deliver.  Chapter 3:  Here is the story of Daniel's three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego surviving an attempted execution by furnace after they refused to worship the Babylonion idol.  Nebuchadnezzar was so impressed that he sent forth a decree that the Jews and their God be respected (v. 28-29).

The king's growing testimony:  "No other God...can deliver after this sort" (v. 29).

A God who is eternal and all-powerful.  Chapter 4:  The king had a second troubling and prophetic dream, which Daniel interpreted.  At this point, although the king had learned quite a bit about the God of Israel, he had not accepted him as his god, relevant to his life.  The interpretation of the dream was terrifying, and Daniel hesitated before giving it (v. 19).  But the king was ready to take it, no matter what, and it revealed that he would be removed from his position of power to a condition of madness for seven years.  What was the purpose?  The growth of his testimony.  He would be mad "till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" (v. 25).  Daniel counseled the king, "Break off thy sins by righteousness [an interesting visualization for all of us--we don't just repent and stop sinning; we break our sins actively through righteous living] and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; [so that] it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility" (v. 27).  When the dream was realized, the seven years were spent, and the king was restored to himself, he sent out a proclamation to all of his dominion declaring his personal worship of the God of Israel.

The king's final, mature testimony:  "[He] liveth for ever, [his] dominion is an everlasting dominion...none can stay his hand...Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment; and those that walk in pride he is able to abase" (v. 34, 35, 37).

Whether King Nebuchadnezzar changed from believing in many gods (polytheism) to believing in many gods with one god ruling over them (henotheism) or to completely joining the Israelites in believing in only one supreme God (monotheism), is hard to tell from the writings, but it is clear that he had a powerful belief in Jehovah at the end of this progression of events (Draper, p. 97).

THE DREAM OF CHAPTER TWO

For the meaning of the dream and its fulfillment, go to Section 28-13 in the Institute Manual.

DANIEL:  THE MAN AND HIS MESSAGE

Now we return to our opening question:  "What is one thing you really like about Daniel, or one message from his book?"  (For this section, prepare ahead of time a large circle of posterboard.  Write on it in large letters "Total Christian."  Now turn the circle over and cut it into wedges like a pie.  Number the wedges discretely at the point, clockwise, so that you can reassemble them in the right order.  On each wedge write one of the six statements listed below in bold Itallic about Daniel.  I recommend that you actually cut eight wedges, however, leaving two of them blank to be filled in with class members' ideas. [Don't you hate having to guess what the teacher is thinking?]  As each class member shares an idea, post the wedge that correlates with his idea, or write his idea on a blank wedge.  Comments that you can add are included below.  As each wedge is added, secure it to the next one with transparent tape.)

Daniel was a patient member-missionary, 24/7.  Daniel was not afraid to share God's message with even the mighty King of Bablyon.  He continued this missionary work as the king gained a testimony of God in graduated steps over many years.  Almost all of the stories relating to Daniel's sharing of the gospel took place in relation to his work.  He never set aside his religion because it conflicted with his job.  Daniel was a religious diplomat, able to live companionably with people of other faiths while remaining completely true to his own beliefs.

How can we do this?  We can begin by taking our faith with us everywhere we go, every day of the week.  When co-workers or classmates ask us how our weekend was, we can share not only the fun activities of Saturday, but the spiritual events we enjoyed on Sunday.  We can make it comfortable for those around us to ask us questions about our faith, by making it known that we are Latter-day Saints or Mormons, by briefly bringing up points of doctrine we believe in as they relate to daily situations, and by being patient and not pushy.

Daniel was steadfast at all costs.  Nothing could stop Daniel from obeying the Lord.  He ate what he was commanded of the Lord to eat.  He prayed as he was commanded of the Lord to pray.  He told the king dream interpretations that could have cost him his head, as he was commanded of the Lord to tell.  (Read 10:12.) 

Daniel 1:1 takes place in 605 BC and Daniel 10:10 in 536 BC (Alec Motyer, The Story of the Old Testament, p. 143), a span of seventy years. 

How do we remain steadfast as Daniel did?  How do we avoid being burned out over seventy years?  Total consecration:  "The antidote to exhaustion is whole-heartedness." (David Steindle-Rast, Mt. Savior Benedictine Monastery, New York, http://www.gratefulness.org/.)

Daniel humbly acknowledged God's help.  He always expressed gratitude for God's hand in his life, and never took credit for wonderful works God did through him.  (Read Daniel 2:27-30).  He did not expect to succeed without mighty prayer.  (See Daniel 2:16-18.)

The great but humble composer J.S. Bach frequently signed his manuscripts with the phrases "Help me, Jesus," "In the name of Jesus," or "To God alone, the glory" (Patrick Kavanaugh, Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, p. 20).  His reliance on God undoubtedly made his works great.

How can we do this?  We might keep a journal of the hand of the Lord in our lives as counseled by President Eyring.  We might note the tender mercies extended to us as counseled by Elder Bednar.  We might develop an attitude of gratefulness.  We might replace the word "lucky" in our conversations with "blessed."  We might offer to pray for friends who are suffering trials, even if they are not of our faith, or of any faith.

Daniel lived close to the Spirit.  He could find out what God wanted him to do in any situation that came up.  He lived an obedient life, and took good care to keep his body and his spirit, even at the cost of angering a king, in tune with God's Spirit (1:15-17).

Daniel was submissive to the Lord's will.  He made the best of the circumstances he found himself in.  He was not able to choose his career or his locale, or much about his life, but he accepted it.  People tried to undermine him, bad things happened, but Daniel did not expect perfection.  He took what he was given and carried on as faithfully as possible, a great example of "blooming where you're planted."

Shadrach, Meshach and Abedneggo are excellent examples of this as well.  The words "but if not" in Daniel 3:18 show that they understood that God's way might not be obvious to them, but they still accepted His will.

"You want to make God laugh?  Then tell him about your plans."  (John Chancellor)

"When I narrow my vision to search for an ideal that my mind has created, life seldom complies.  But when I broaden my vision to simply notice what life is offering, I find that I am surrounded by an abundance of care and support."  (Gregg Krech)

"Discontent cheats you out of the life you have" (David Steindl-Rast).  We tend to expect perfection in a manner that does not confrom with God's plans, and that expectation smothers gratitude.  One of the most grateful people I knew was a dear friend and visiting teaching companion named Nola Gay Webb who, at the time that she was enduring the slow and painful process of dying of her second cancer, shared the following story told by Janet P. Lee with the sisters we visited:

"When my daughter Stephanie was five years old, I took her to register for kindergarten. When we arrived, she was invited to go into a classroom to play 'games' with the teachers and other children. As a former elementary school teacher, I was certain the 'games' were a method of testing for placement purposes.
 
"A teacher was sitting just outside the room with a box of crayons and several sheets of blank paper, and I smiled confidently to myself from across the hall as Stephanie was asked to choose her favorite color and write her name. 'She could write all the names in our family,' I thought to myself. 'She is so well prepared, there isn't anything in that room she can't handle!' But Stephanie just stood there. The teacher repeated the instructions, and again my daughter stood still, staring blankly at the box of crayons with her knees locked and hands behind her back.
 
"In the sweet, patient voice that teachers use when they are beginning to feel slightly impatient, the teacher asked once more, 'Stephanie, choose your favorite color, dear, and write your name on this piece of paper.' I was about to come to my daughter's aid when the teacher kindly said, 'That's okay. We will help you learn to write your name when you come to school in the fall.' With all the restraint I could muster, I watched Stephanie move into the classroom with a teacher who believed my daughter did not know how to write her name.
 
"On the way home I tried to ask as nonchalantly as possible why she had not written her name. 'I couldn't,' she replied. 'The teacher said to choose my favorite color, and there wasn't a pink crayon in the box!'

"I reflect on this incident often as I watch my children grow and observe life in general. How many times are we, as Heavenly Father's children, immobilized because the choice we had in mind for ourselves just isn't available to us, at least not at the time we want it?"  (Janet P. Lee, "Knowing When to Persevere and When to Change Direction," BYU Devotional Address given January 14, 1992.  By the way, this is a wonderful talk, well worth reading.)

Daniel was Grateful.  (Read 2:17-23.)  We Latter-day Saints, living in these enlightened times, and many of us in well-developed, prosperous environments, must continually work to be grateful.  "We get, too quickly, used to things."  We are not surprised after a while by our blessings.  When was the last time you were surprised that the light turned on when you flicked the switch?  Yet, if it doesn't come on, your attention is rivited to that deficit.  A friend of mine, on a humanitarian trip to teach doctors in Mongolia to operate on ears and throats, was astonished at the patience of the medical staff there as the electricity would go off for long periods of time in the middle of surgical procedures.  They would just keep the patient comfortable, visit among themselves, and calmly wait for the return of power.

"We get, too quickly, used to things.  Once we take it for granted, it no longer brings us joy.  Instead, we think, What's next?" (David Steindl-Rast)

(Set a teacup inside a glass serving bowl with a capacity of about a half gallon or two liters.  Pour a quart or liter of water from a large measuring cup into the teacup and notice how the cup overflows.)  The cup is the expectation.  The water is the blessings.  The expectation was more than fulfilled, therefore we easily notice the overflow and this gratitude brings us joy!  "Our cup runneth over!"  (Pour the water back into the measuring cup.  Now remove the teacup from the serving bowl.  Pour the water into the serving bowl, and it is not filled.)  If we increase the size of the container (our expectations) we decrease the amount overflowing (the joy).  The amount of joy we experience as a result of our blessings is directly related to our expectation.  If last year's wants become this year's needs, the container of expectation becomes large; it is human nature.  That is why when the Lord prospers a people, they often become ungrateful, forget to acknowledge His hand, and slip away from their faith.

We need to take the effort to slow ourselves down enough to be grateful.  Perhaps keeping a gratitude journal, or sometimes praying or fasting in gratitude only, would help us to teach ourselves to be surprised and to remain in a sense of wonderment about our blessings.

 SUMMARY

(Flip the taped-together circle over to show the words "Total Christian.")

Daniel was the total Christian.  He survived trials, fears, captivity, displacement, almost certain death, prosperity, jealous vendettas, adulation, imprisonment, and great power, all the while keeping the faith.  In every circumstance he was true.  How did he do that?  Well, one slice of the picture cannot tell it alone.  He was steadfast because he was also grateful.  He was grateful because he was humble.  Because he was humble, he was also diplomatic.  Because he was faithful, he could submit himself to the Lord's will.  He was in tune with the Spirit because he recognized the Lord's hand in everything.  Everything in Daniel's life linked together to form a total disciple.

As latter-day children of Israel living in the Promised Land (whichever land that may be, as all parts of the world now have temples), we must follow Daniel's example.  We are the individual snowflakes in the avalanche of the Lord's kingdom.  The stone rolls faster down the hill as each person becomes closer to total consecration in his faith and commitment.

(If there is classtime left, you may wish to show the last five minutes of the Church video, "An Ensign to the Nations.")