How Quick To Forget the Lord Their God

Is anyone else amazed by the cycle in the Book of Mormon how in one chapter the people are righteous and prosper and in the next chapter it seems they become proud and wicked and forget the Lord their God? And yet upon closer examination I wonder if that doesn't happen to some extent in our lives. I choose this subject to write on after reading in Helaman 7:6

"Now this great iniquity had come upon the Nephites in the space of not many years." I thought I'd take a look at just how quickly it did happen to them and how we can keep it from happening to us.

My first example comes from Alma 45:1, right after the Nephites had been delivered from a great army of the Lamanites: "therefore they gave thanks unto the Lord their God; yea, and they did fast and pray much and they did worship God with exceedingly great joy." And yet later that very same year (about 73B.C.) there were many even in the Church "who believed in the flattering words of Amalickiah" who wanted to be a king over them and they dissented from the church. Chapter 46, verse 8 laments, "Thus we see how quick the children of men do forget the Lord their God, yea, how quick to do iniquity, and to be led away by the evil one."

Another example comes around 43 B.C. We read about this in Helaman 3:24-25.

"And it came to pass that in this same year there was exceedingly great prosperity in the church, insomuch that there were thousands who did join themselves unto the church and were baptized unto repentance. And so great was the prosperity of the church and so many the blessings which were poured out upon the people, that even the high priests and the teachers were themselves astonished beyond measure."

But then only five years later in bout 38B.C. the Nephites suffer a great loss at the hands of the Lamanites because, as we read in Helaman 4:11,

"Now this great loss of the Nephites, and the great slaughter which was among them, would not have happened had it not been for their wickedness and their abomination which was among them; yea, and it was among those also who professed to belong to the church of God. And it was because of the pride of their hearts, because of their exceeding riches."

So how does this apply to us in our day? I think if we're not careful, it gets to the point where we're slow to remember the Lord our God, especially when things are going well. We probably all know of people who have been strong in the Church but have fallen away, even return missionaries. How does it happen? I think they gradually stop doing the things the kept them strong - they stopped daily scripture study and daily prayer, then started skipping going to church and they didn't remember the blessings in their lives that came from the Lord. In the example above from Helaman it may have only been two pages between righteousness and wickedness, but it was actually five years. A person can slip a lot in that amount of time. I'm grateful for our family scripture challenge and the motivation it's been to me to really study the scriptures with a consistency and intensity I've probably not done since my mission. But I can testify that the consistent scripture study combined with consistent temple attendance has brought me incredible peace and blessings -blessings not only to me but to my family. I find my confidence waxing stronger. I only hope I can continue to do these things so I don't make the mistakes of so many of the wicked Nephites, but rather follow the pattern of the righteous Nephites in Alma 62:49:

"But notwithstanding their riches, or their strength, or their prosperity, they were not lifted up in the pride of their eyes; neither were they slow to remember the Lord their God; but they did humble themselves exceedingly before him. Yea, they did remember how great things the Lord had done for them."