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Where is your focus?
August 2020

“Where is your focus?” Ensign, August 2020

Come, Follow Me: Book of Mormon

Alma 43–52 (August 3–9)

Where is your focus?

Where is your focus

Captain Moroni and Amalickiah focused their lives on different things. While “Amalickiah had … been obtaining power by fraud and deceit, Moroni … had been preparing the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord their God” (Alma 48:7).

What can we learn from the differences between Moroni and Amalickiah?

Moroni:

  1. Was “appointed by the chief judges and the voice of the people” (Alma 46:34).

  2. Made his beliefs known “with a loud voice” and invited others to do good (see Alma 46:19–20). His heart swelled “with thanksgiving to his God” (Alma 48:12).

  3. Swore an oath to defend his people, rights, country, and religion but did not glory in bloodshed (see Alma 48:13, 16).

  4. Found joy in liberty (see Alma 48:11), and his heart gloried in “preserving his people” (Alma 48:16).

Amalickiah:

  1. Sought to dethrone the king of the Lamanites and make himself king (see Alma 47:8).

  2. Was a “subtle man to do evil” and secretly “laid [his] plan in his heart” (Alma 47:4).

    He also cursed God (see Alma 49:27).

  3. Stirred the Lamanites to anger to cause a war and swore an oath to drink Moroni’s blood (see Alma 47:1; 49:27).

  4. Fought to place others in bondage (see Alma 49:26) and “did care not for the blood of his people” (Alma 49:10).