Following Promptings

In this week’s Come Follow Me lesson, we learn about Alma and Amulek, and their lessons they taught the people of Ammonihah. Alma was trying to teach the people of Ammonihah, but they ridiculed him; they spit on him, made fun of him and his teachings, and basically ran him out of town. He left town, feeling pretty dejected. He was visited by an angel of the Lord, and was prompted to turn back and go into Ammonihah and preach again to the people there. He did as he was commanded, and ran into Amulek.

Amulek was doing his own thing, and was prompted to take in Alma, without Alma knowing that this had happened. Amulek decided to give the prompting a shot, and ended up taking in Alma. Alma explained who he was, and together Alma and Amulek taught the people of Ammonihah together.We read their teachings, which essentially include the Plan of Salvation, or the Plan of Redemption, as they call it in these particular teachings to the people. They specifically interact with a man named Zeezrom, who tries to get them to deny the gospel. As Alma and Amulek teach Zeezrom and the people of the city, Zeezrom seems to begin to understand what they are teaching.

The thing that sticks out this week is Alma’s willingness to listen to his prompting to return to Ammonihah, and Amulek’s willingness to listen to his prompting to take in Alma. They each received promptings, and they each acted on them. Now we can study their lessons because they were prompted to do something, and then acted on that prompting. There’s a lesson to be learned, even from just witnessing how they reacted to their promptings.

How often are we each prompted to do something? How willing are we to follow through on those promptings? How do we even know that we’re being prompted, or what we’re being prompted to do? Most of us, okay, the huge majority, like almost everybody, are not going to receive promptings from angels. We’re not going to be woke up in the middle of the night by angels that prompt us to do something. Instead, we’ll receive promptings in smaller, more practical ways. Those ways may be ideas, or feelings, or something somebody else says, or seeing what somebody else does. Maybe you don’t feel like you’re being prompted to do anything, and that’s okay. But…

You have a purpose.

Your purpose is specific to you. Your purpose requires your talents, your strengths, and your personality. It can only be fulfilled by you. Your purpose may be something now, and then something else later. That’s okay, because your life changes. You learn, you grow, you find and gain new talents and interests, you meet new people. Your purpose is always specific to you though. Nobody else.

In this week’s lesson, Alma’s purpose was to teach, specifically at this point, the people of Ammonihah. You could also say that one of his purposes was to bring Amulek around to being ready to help. Amulek’s purpose was first to help bring back Alma, and then to help teach the people of Ammonihah. Had either of them not listened to those promptings, the people of Ammonihah would have not been taught, and perhaps destroyed. Lives would have been ruined.

What if Alma was too scared, depressed, or anxious after being run out of town? And Amulek… By Amulek’s own account, he was not very concerned with the gospel when he received the prompting to help Alma. He was literally asked to feed the missionaries… What if he had decided that it wasn’t worth the effort? What if he thought he just had something better to do? How did they know that they were being called to do something? All this leads to…

How can you know what you’re being called to do?

You can ask. You can journal your thoughts and ideas. Then make your plans, and then act on them. If you’re not sure what you’re being told to do, you can often go back through your journal and study your own words. Use a highlighter, re-read your own words, and highlight words, phrases, or ideas that seem to be there over and over. Then, journal about that. You might find that you’ve been being prompted the entire time.

Look, I promise that you have strengths, talents, and interests that are specific to you and your personality. Because of that, you have a purpose that can only be fulfilled by you. Don’t keep it from us. You’re destined for greatness, because of who you are. Don’t rob the world of that.