RISK

A little while ago I was reading in Alma, in the Book of Mormon. Starting in about chapter 45, and going to the end of Alma, the Lamanites and Nephites are warring with each other. War is never a good thing, but I had a little fun with it as I read. Came up with a fun little analogy, so, bear with me. :) There's a Lamanite who wants to be king. Amalikiah. He's very cunning, and he uses murder and deceit to dethrone the Lamanite king, and to make himself king. Once king, he stirs the Lamanites to anger, with the intent of battling the Nephites and bringing them into bondage. So he builds up his armies. But little does he know, that Moroni, the Nephite leader, was already preparing for when Amalikiah's armies came to battle against them, before the Lamanites were even preparing.

Now, there's these armies from the two groups of people, and they are in possession of different cities, or territories. And the Lamanite and Nephite armies, as they battle each other, take possession of cities from each other, depending on how strong and prepared they are. And sometimes the armies take cities back that they lost, and then there's surprise attacks, and building up of armies, and losing armies. All of this battling, and back and forth fighting reminded me of the game RISK. How many of you have played that game? By show of hands... Okay, thanks for your participation. So, RISK is a game I love. You have all these territories, and you try to get more by stratagem. And you try to build up your armies, and fortify your weak places. Then you attack your opponents weak places, or strongholds if you have a big army. And sometimes you have to attack in a round about way, from behind, to get the advantage.

As I read these chapters of war, I thought that those wars are like the war we individually have with the adversary. Satan's cunning, like Amalikiah. But he uses lies and wickedness to get what he wants and to try to defeat us. So we need to be cunning like Moroni. We need to put our trust in the Lord, and build up ourselves, so that we are strong in the Lord. There are times when Satan will have a hold of something inside us, part of our soul, or mind, or heart. And he's always trying to get more. He wants to have us completely, not just a part of us. So we need to build up what he doesn't have, so that he can't attack there. We need to fortify our hearts and souls in the strength of the Lord, so that if he does come against us, he is defeated.

There are several times in a couple of those chapters when it says that Moroni, or the Nephite armies, are fortifying their cities, and never ceasing their preparations. At the end of chapter 49, it says that they had peace, and prosperity in the church. But then in the beginning of chapter 50, it says "And now it came to pass that Moroni did not stop making preparations for war." Even when we think all is good, and we're on the right path, and we don't have any temptations, if we're not continually fortifying our minds and hearts, then our places of security and fortifications will start to deteriorate, and become weak, and Satan will find his way in. So, we need to make sure that we are strong, and never stop fortifying ourselves.