Captain Moroni was a "good mom!"

While reading this this morning, one thought seemed more clear to me than any other: Captain Moroni was a good mom! He too had to deal with the drawbacks (saying threats when referring to a scriptural hero somehow seems wrong) of outlining consequences that he then had to back up. I make no pretense of suggesting that life as a mother to my five hooligans (bedlamites, children: potato, potahto) is the same as leading the Nephites against the never ending evil threat of the liberty stealing Lamanites, but somehow it just warmed my heart to see in print, in scripture no less, the concept that threats must not be empty, that consequences must be fulfilled that if I promise no screens for a week for an egregious infraction of family rules, I have to survive that whole week, even though I am punishing myself along with the fractious children.

I am always amazed as I plow through the war chapters that comprise much of Alma how much they apply to my life as a mother of little ones in the desert. Captain Moroni has been making a lot of fortifications lately in my reading: digging up a lot of earth, building what must have been menacing and backbreaking protections for his people. I see in those descriptions my need to protect my little ones with similar backbreaking protections--scripture reading, church attendance, FHE, good nutrition, good sleep and study habits, piano practice, healthy work ethic, respect for self and others (and on, and on). It never ends, but it never ended for Captain Moroni either. Our pediatrician always goes through a selection of questions about safety during well child checks--does our pool have a gate, does the child in question understand about stranger danger, does s/he know not to approach strange dogs, what food is healthy, wear a helmet. Those questions are easy. The more difficult questions are, does my child know how to access the powers of Heaven? Do they all know how to listen to the Holy Ghost to make important decisions? Can they say, with Nephi "I know in whom I have trusted"? Pediatrician doesn't know to answer those questions (but he did mention the missionaries he saw on his recent trip to the Ukraine!) Those are my safety questions.

Later in the same chapter in Alma, Captain Moroni doesn't kill the drunken guards, because he doesn't delight in bloodshed, he just wanted liberty for his people. I have in a pencilled note at the bottom of the page--linking verse 19 with verse 28 where it talks about the Nephites being able to begin to reclaim their rights and privileges. My note says that perhaps because Moroni was seeking a great blessing--the liberty of his people--he wanted clean hands to be worthy. I am seeking great blessings--the eternal safety of my children--are my hands sufficiently clean? I worry about this, about genuinely doing all that is needful, about choosing the better part, what is essential, so that I can worthily call for the blessings of Heaven to be showered upon my family.

And I marvel at the continual, unplumbable depths of war chapters in the Book of Alma.