QUOTES FOR ALMA 23-29
"It is not the sins that people do that causes burn-out in psychiatrists. What causes burn-out is that they won't give them up."
Scott Peck, psychiatrist, (paraphrased).
The name Anti-Nephi-Lehi could indicate the joining together of the descendants of Nephi and those who followed him, with the other posterity of Lehi: "The name 'Anti' of 'Anti-Nephi-Lehi' may be a reflex of the Egyptian nty 'he of, the one of.' Thus, rather than having the sense 'against,' it has the meaning 'the one of Nephi and Lehi.'"
Stephen D. Ricks, Book of Mormon Reference Companion, 67.
"Their minds were clean to the deepest level." [Speaking of Jesus Christ and Buddha.]
"I said, "How does one get one's mind that clean?"
"Live a good life. Help people. Meditate...Don't hurt. Don't hurt. Don't hurt."
(Roland Merullo, Breakfast with Buddha, 218.)
Much of the emotional pain that we have doesn't come from the love we weren't given in the past, but from the love we ourselves aren't giving now.
Nearly every day someone will do one of these: belittle us, be insensitive to us, be indifferent, make us feel insecure, humiliate us, frighten us, abuse us, inconvenience us, criticize us, disappoint us, lie to us, damage us in some way.
But how are we ever going to learn Christ-like love unless we have a chance to practice in the face of opposites! To learn to forge the divine nature in ourselves.
There are all kinds of dysfunctional relationships in the Book of Mormon. And all kinds of people who get through these relationships. The people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi are perhaps the most profound example of learning Christ-like love under extreme circumstances.
Our thoughts and feelings have an energy of their own. (Remember the quotes from David O. McKay? - about how we radiate out our thoughts, for good or bad).
Our thoughts affect others, but mostly they affect the person from whom they originated.
Thoughts are probably a rudimentary form of the power of creation which you and I will have in the hereafter. The more we can control and discipline them here, as the scriptures say a lot about, the greater the power we'll have to create the things we want around us.
What happens to us matters, but what has a more powerful effect on us, is what we send out of us in response. For example: perhaps someone does something to you. You feel that negative ripple go through you and you have to decide what your response will be. You have the power to neutralize the negative effect, letting it pass through you harmlessly, or to let it intensify, affecting others with its darkness. Or, you can choose to return love.
Mark 7:20 "That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man."
These thoughts are from a talk by M. Catherine Thomas, "The Book of Mormon, Scripture Reading and Personal Revelation," (private files of Nancy Baird), and from Nancy Baird.
"It may be infinitely less evil to murder a man than to refuse to forgive him. The former may be a moment of passion, the latter is the heart's choice."
George McDonald
Alma 23-29 - Nancy Baird - April 26, 2011 (Audio)
