Burrying Our Weapons of War

Alma 24:19—“And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin; and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war for peace.”

As children of God living in this mortal world, we all fight daily battles. These battles are often between us and some outside source of evil trying to destroy our lives. Sometimes the daily battle is fought within, between a desire to do good and a natural tendency to do evil. Seen and unseen battles of both forms are difficult to fight.

In the twenty-fourth chapter of Alma, we read the story of a group of converted Lamanites who would “suffer even unto death rather than commit sin...” Originally, their unconverted Lamanite brethren were angry with them. They were so angry that they decided to go to war with these newly converted followers of Jesus Christ. At some point before the battle, the converts later known as the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, hear a powerful testimony shared to them by their king. Inspired by his words and motivated by their love of Christ, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies decided to bury their weapons deep inside the Earth. They covenanted to never use their weapons again to shed blood.

Sometimes we face battles that we shouldn’t be facing in the first place. Occasionally, our pride acts as a weapon, destroying our humility and creating contentions. We should consider daily what weapons of war we can bury to create peace in our lives.