Writing Sample 2

 Weapons of Peace

Before the semester started, a close friend and I began a scripture study program we refer to as the “Book of Mormon Challenge.” It’s one of those programs where you’re supposed to finish reading in 90 days. As an extra accountability measure, we both agreed to text the other person a verse that inspired us each day and the reason why. We focused on two themes: repentance (or how God is merciful in forgiving us) and covenants.

One of the verses that stood out to me during our challenge was Alma 24:15. It is part of the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehites, who covenanted with God to bury their weapons of war. The verse begins by praising God for how merciful He had been in forgiving them of the awful sins they’d committed. In fact, it says that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, their swords have become clean and “bright.” They were completely unspotted. Because of this gift they have received from Christ, they desired then to enter into a covenant with Him so that this wonderful feeling of forgiveness could always be theirs and that they would have no stumbling block keeping them out of His presence. They covenanted to bury their weapons of war in return for the grace Christ offered them—in return for salvation.

 It certainly must have been an incredible experience because the people eventually exclaimed, “Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.”

This is particularly powerful to me because they were being forgiven for horrible, terrible things, and yet, through their covenant, they became the sons and daughters of God. It is sometimes hard for us to deal with sin and repentance and forgiveness. I recently found this out for myself as I was placed in a difficult situation after a friend came to me with a plea for forgiveness. When he told me everything that’d been happening in his life, and confessing what he had done, I knew it had been very difficult for him. Before I even knew what I was doing, I said I forgave him.

Later that night, I became very worried that I’d acted without thinking. Was he worthy of forgiveness? Should I have done anything differently? Eventually, this worry built up so much that I needed more than just my own help for relief. I knelt down, said a prayer, and picked up my scriptures. As I read, I was overcome with a feeling of Christ’s love for me and for this friend of mine. It was as if Christ was telling me that if His atonement was big enough, infinite enough, to clean the blood from the swords of the Anti-Nephi-Lehites, then it was enough to take care of me and my friend that very night. It was a feeling of brightness, just like they described happened to their swords—swords that used to be weapons of war, but now were a symbol of peace and salvation.