The 2,000 Stripling Warriors

I love how every time you read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you think you may have read it, something new always stands out. This time reading the story of the 2,000 Stripling Warriors one major thing stood out.

The battles they were up against were defiantly not in their favor. But they didn't let that discourage them, because they remembered the things their mothers had taught them- that if they would not doubt, God would deliver them. (Alma 56:47)

They go into war and Heleman, their commander, in Alma 56:56 says that after the fight is over,

"to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as if with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength..."

They enter into another fight and again they "obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them." and they remembered the things their mothers taught them. (Alma 57:21) Because of this, two hundred out of the two thousand and sixty fainted because of the loss of blood. Heleman says,

"Nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received MANY wounds.

    And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power.

    Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually." (Alma 57:25-27)

Just because the 2,000 stripling warriors were righteous doesn't meand they were exempt from receiving many wounds. Infact there wansn't one who didn't receive MANY wounds. the sentence "neither was there one soul among them who had not received MANY wounds" stood out to me. Just because we are faithful and are doing the things we know we should be doing doesn't mean we aren't going to receive wounds along this path we call life. We are in a battle and the wounds we do receive are going to only make us straonger and prepare us for bigger wound thats may come later on down the road. I know we have a loving Heavenly Father who is very much aware of us and our needs. I know we will all receive wounds in this life, and we may even "faint" because of them. But just like the stripling warriors we won't receive any wounds we won't be able to handle. The point of this life is to learn and grow so that we can be more like our Heavenly Father and return to live with him again someday.