Alma 57

Striving to Obey the Commandments Continually

What is your attitude toward keeping the commandments? Why does your attitude matter? While fighting in another dangerous battle, the stripling warriors obeyed “every word of command with exactness,” putting “their trust in God continually” (Alma 57:21, 27). This lesson is designed to help you strive to obey God’s commands continually.

Help students practice using study skills throughout the year. Teachers can show students how to use many different scripture study skills and learning methods in class. You may want to pause and briefly discuss how a method or skill can be used and then practice it during the lesson. Encourage students to also use the skill in their personal study.

Student preparation: Invite students to think of examples of the Savior’s obedience to Heavenly Father and ponder what they can learn from those examples.

Possible Learning Activities

Attitudes toward the commandments

To help prepare students to learn about keeping commandments, consider inviting them to do the following activity. Encourage students to make their descriptions realistic and relevant.

Describe three different attitudes someone might have toward keeping the commandments of God and why.

As students share, consider writing the attitudes on the board. Encourage students to share realistic reasons why someone might have this attitude.

Take a moment to write the answers to the following questions in your study journal:

• What is your attitude toward keeping the commandments of God? Why does your attitude matter?

• If you are not currently striving to keep the commandments the best you can, what is keeping you from doing so?

As you study today, look for principles about obedience that may inspire and motivate you and help you with any questions or concerns. Ponder how they can apply to and bless your life.

Stripling warriors

In the previous lesson, you learned how the 2,000 stripling warriors helped Antipus and his men defeat “the strongest” and “most numerous” Lamanite army in that part of the land (see Alma 56:34). In Alma 57, Helaman continued his letter to Captain Moroni. Sixty more sons of the people of Ammon joined his army (see Alma 57:6), and the 2,060 young warriors faced another threat. The Lamanites attacked the Nephites and were about to overpower them when Helaman and his men were joined by a group of soldiers who had previously been conveying Lamanite prisoners (see Alma 57:1–18).

Two scripture study skills that can deepen your study of this account and help you apply its lessons to your life are to identify and ponder important words or phrases.

Read Alma 57:19–23 to see what happened. Consider marking words and phrases that describe Helaman’s stripling warriors.

To model this skill, consider studying Alma 57:19–20 together and pointing out words and phrases such as “firm” and “undaunted.” Consider encouraging students to look up the meanings of these words and share how the meanings affect their understanding. Then invite students to find other important words and phrases in Alma 57:21–23 and share their thoughts about them.

In verse 21, consider marking how Helaman described the obedience of these young men. Read Alma 58:40, looking for the warriors’ attitude toward God and His commandments after the next military threat.

• What do you think it means to “perform every word of command with exactness” (Alma 57:21) and “observe to keep … his commandments continually” (Alma 58:40)?

• How does our faith in and remembrance of Jesus Christ influence our desire and ability to obey God’s commandments?

Read Alma 57:24–27, looking for words or phrases that show how the sons of Helaman were blessed in their second battle because of their faith in and obedience to God.

Invite students to share what phrases stood out to them and why they think the phrases are important.

• What did you learn from this account that could relate to your life today?

Encourage students to share various principles. Consider writing the responses on the board.

One principle we can learn is if we put our trust in God and strive to keep His commands continually, then He will bless us by His marvelous power.

• How can knowing that there is “a just God” who has “miraculous” and “marvelous power” (Alma 57:26) affect our attitude toward obeying Him?

• What attitude do you think the Lord might want us to have when we strive to keep His commandments but fall short of perfect obedience? How does your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ help answer this question?

It is important to understand that as we are obedient to His commands, God will bless us in His own way and time. In both of their battles, the stripling warriors were blessed to have their lives preserved despite dangerous fighting and injuries.

Give students a few minutes to do at least two of the following.

1. Read at least two of the following passages to increase your understanding of the purposes of God’s commandments and how He may bless you for your obedience: Abraham 3:25; John 14:15; Mosiah 2:41; Alma 9:13.

2. Think of examples of the Savior’s obedience to Heavenly Father, and ponder what you learn from His example. Elder Robert D. Hales (1932–2017) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that “our love of the Savior is the key to Savior-like obedience” (“If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2014, 37). Think of some of the reasons you love the Savior and how that love affects your attitude toward obeying the commandments.

3. Reflect on ways you have been obedient to God’s commandments and the blessings He has given you for your obedience.

After students have finished, invite them to do their best to follow these instructions: Stand up. Find someone in the room, and share what you learned from one of the tasks. Find someone else in the room and share with them what you learned from one of the other tasks. Return to your seat.

After students have finished, invite them to share with the class something they learned through their own study or something meaningful a classmate shared.

Think of one of God’s commandments. Describe what it might realistically look like for a teenager today to strive to remember the Lord and obey this commandment continually. Then describe what blessings a teenager who obeys this way might receive.

• What are some reasons we may feel tempted not to do our best to obey a commandment? How might we overcome these temptations?

• How does striving to keep the commandments continually require us to rely on the Savior Jesus Christ?

To conclude this lesson, make a goal in your study journal as to how you would like to “remember the Lord [your] God from day to day; [and] … observe to keep … his commandments continually” (Alma 58:40). You might select a particular commandment you would like to obey better. As part of your goal, consider giving yourself a time period—for example, “I will strive to sincerely pray morning and night for the next five days” or “I am going to on the Sabbath day for the next four weeks.”

It may be helpful to know that there will be an opportunity in the lesson “Assess Your Learning 7” for students to evaluate their progress.

Commentary and Background Information

What blessings come from obeying all of God’s commandments?

President Russell M. Nelson pointed out another way we can strive to obey with exactness:

[You] will encounter people who pick which commandments they will keep and ignore others that they choose to break. I call this the cafeteria approach to obedience. This practice of picking and choosing will not work. It will lead to misery. To prepare to meet God, one keeps all of His commandments. …

… Obedience to the commandments of God will provide physical and spiritual protection. (Russell M. Nelson, “Face the Future with Faith,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2011, 34–35)

Why does the Lord give us commandments?

Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

Our Heavenly Father’s goal in parenting is not to have His children do what is right; it is to have His children choose to do what is right and ultimately become like Him. If He simply wanted us to be obedient, He would use immediate rewards and punishments to influence our behaviors.

But God is not interested in His children just becoming trained and obedient “pets.” …

God established a plan whereby we can become heirs in His kingdom, a covenant path that leads us to become like Him, have the kind of life He has, and live forever as families in His presence. Personal choice was—and is—vital to this plan, which we learned about in our premortal existence. (Dale G. Renlund, “Choose You This Day,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2018, 104)

What else have General Authorities and leaders of the Church taught about obedience?

The following videos highlight teachings of General Authorities and other leaders of the Church:

“Blessed and Happy Are Those Who Keep the Commandments of God” (5:41)

“Going to Grandma’s” (4:02)

“Obedience Brings Blessings” (3:26)

Supplemental Learning Activities

An alternate beginning

Consider beginning the lesson by displaying a list of tasks on the board. Here are some examples: Give someone a compliment. Read a doctrinal mastery passage aloud. Write a commandment you are grateful for on the board.

Ask the class to do as many of them in order as exactly as possible. When they are done, ask them to ponder whether they tried to do the challenges exactly. Invite them to share what benefits might come from trying to do tasks exactly.

Alma 58. Turn to God in times of difficulty

To help students study an additional account of the stripling warriors, explain that the Nephites desired to retake the city of Manti. They were so greatly outnumbered that they decided to wait for reinforcements and supplies from Zarahemla.

Read Alma 58:6–12, looking for what the Nephites did as they faced this difficult situation and how the Lord responded. Help students identify the principle that if we turn to God in times of difficulty, we can receive peace that can give us hope. Invite students to write common difficulties a teenager might face, then invite them to add some ways we can turn to God in such times. Ask students to share how God has blessed them in their difficult times. Read Alma 58:39–40, looking for how the stripling warriors chose to turn to God during their difficulties.