We are delighted to have McArthur Krishna guest posting all the way from India. McArthur and Bethany are the powerteam authoring the Girls Who Choose God series. If you haven’t discovered these books yet, please consider yourself invited to do so. They’re wonderful and deserve our support! If you’re stuck for ideas, may I suggest that Stories of Strong Women From The Book Of Mormon  would make an excellent Easter gift.

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I admit when Bethany and I set out to do Girls Who Choose God: Stories of Strong Women from the Book of Mormon, we had mixed feelings.

On one hand, the Book of Mormon IS the keystone of our religion and so should be a highlight in our series.  On the flip-side, it often seemed a book full of war, fleeing to the wilderness, and a discouraging lack of women participants.

Now, after having spent a year prayerfully reading, wrangling, and writing our text, I can tell you we feel differently.  And, here’s the thing— this year we are going to officially study the Book of Mormon all year. Just considering the time investment we are all making, I thought I might share some of the realisations Bethany and I had along the way.

Let’s tackle the war angle first.  As there is plenty of war in this world, I found I often did not want to read about yet more conflict.  If anything, I wanted war to feel farther away… I could pray for those in Syria and Nigeria and Palestine but I didn’t want to have my spiritual study focused on war. However, I was able to reorient myself and see that discussions on war in the scriptures could be helpful even in my own life.

One realisation hit me— Life has plenty of conflict even when I am not personally in a war zone.  So, if you work outside the home or you have children or you have roommates or you simply just don’t live as a solo yogi in a cave, you experience conflict. (And perhaps the yogi does too— I can fight with myself!)

At a business conference on the east coast, I heard a motivational speaker once talk about how conflict is inherent in our lives and so we might as well get good at it.  (I don’t remember his name. If I did, I would credit him. I remember being surprised as he was from Park City and talked about remarrying into a lot of kids and his step-daughter’s hair blow drying blowing the circuit and how when he joined two sets of kids he had no idea how many plugs that would require.  Yes, all that— but not his name. Feel free to enlighten me if you know.) But I think he was smart— let’s get good at conflict.  Let’s learn how to be kind while having a difference of opinion. Learn to be honest… as in, say what we mean and mean what we say.  Learn to stay at the table.

I had a friend named Ike once say to me, “This appears to be a hard conversation we are about to have.  Let’s start hard and work ourselves to a more comfortable place.” That comment made me take a deep breath and then be able to do the hard work. The conversation was going to be rough but he made me trust that I was in a safe emotional place and we would get back to an easier understanding by the end. Expect that you are going to have conflict in your life, learn to be good at it, and work your way back.  The Book of Mormon can help as we read through and see how people weathered these times.  One big hint: turning to the Lord is always a good method.

Second realisation about war came while reading Alma 23:7. “For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God anymore, neither against any of their brethren (or sisters).” (Parenthesis added.  Obviously.) The scripture refers to people laying down real weapons such as swords and bows and pickaxes and whatever else they used. But I know over the years I have collected plenty of weapons in my own personal arsenal… sarcasm, snottiness, cold shoulder, the evil eye, poking, arrogance, quick rebuttal, and the list goes on. Reading this scripture made me realise that I needed to learn to lay down these weapons and not fight with God or anyone.  That can be hard.  I live in India and there is nothing that gets me snottier faster than a dishonest rickshaw driver. Just yesterday one quoted an almost triple the price and refused to use his meter.  My weapons kicked in and I was super snotty in response.  Why?  I could have just said no thank you and walked away… but I got mad. And so while he loses out on a fare, I lose out on a little shine on my sunny soul.  I’ve got to work harder to lay down my weapons.

Next, the fleeing to the wilderness angle.  As Bethany says, “Go camping. It solves most things.” And I think we can take every admonition about fleeing to the wilderness as a license to head for the hills and get some fresh air and god-made nature in our systems.  Just go.  And if camping is not your thing, pick something else.  Nature is good for us— in whatever form works for you.

Last, the discouraging lack of women.  And, to me, this is the most interesting thing we found. There are actually LOTS of women mentioned in the Book of Mormon.  Over 150 times, according to a talk back in 1977 by Marjorie Meads Spencer. (How come I never knew this?) And while some of those mentions are the merest of nods, others provide unexpected richness if we simply choose to pay attention. We can learn from Nephi’s wife who chose to do all she could and then turn to God in mighty prayer to protect her husband. We can learn from Nephi’s sisters who chose to break from false tradition and supported their younger brother as the prophet. We can learn from the women who choose to be baptised at the Waters of Mormon and, despite danger and hardship, chose to be believers.

I personally think this world needs more believers… people who believe in God, goodness, and each other. I think believing means we choose to be positive. My goal this year (and previous years, frankly) is to live with a more soft heart.  (This concept comes from the amazing Virginia Pearce via my amazing friend Mieka.)

Let’s try this year to read and learn from the Book of Mormon so that at the end of the year we can be stronger, humbler, softer-hearted people.