Lessons from the Writings of Moroni

During the month of June, I studied all of the chapters in the Book of Mormon which were written by Moroni. Here are some of the principles I learned, grouped by category:

Faith and Knowledge

• If we will choose to overcome our unbelief and exercise faith, we can gain greater spiritual knowledge, which will in turn give us power.
• By exercising faith, we can obtain a deeper, more certain hope that we will receive the blessings promised by God to the faithful.
• Our ability to receive additional spiritual knowledge depends on the way we treat the knowledge we have already received.
• Our testimony of the gospel can be based on multiple forms of evidence, including the scriptures and the words of prophets, as well as our own firsthand experience as we live the gospel.
• We need to establish habits which will enable us to maintain our faith over time.
• Part of having faith is not stopping when we have only received some of the blessings the Lord has promised.

The Priesthood and the Church

• Priesthood authority is received by ordination, but we must “call on the Father…in mighty prayer” to receive priesthood power.
• In the church, we remember each other and we strengthen and support each other.
• When we invite the Holy Ghost into our hearts, we feel a desire to share the gospel. When others reject our message, we respect their agency but continue to love them.
• We must participate fully in the sacrament in order to receive all of its blessings. The blessing on the water, in particular, reminds us that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can bless us immediately and individually.
• Part of preparing for baptism is to repent of all of our sins, not just some.

Grace

• When we follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, we not only align our actions with the will of God, but we also enable Him to transform us and to help us become more righteous.
• We should allow our weaknesses to make us humble, but we must remember that God’s grace is sufficient to make us strong. Instead of trying to overcome every shortcoming, we ought to focus on doing good, so that we can draw closer to the Savior, who can save us.
• We ought to seek Jesus so that His grace can not only be in us, but can also abide in us forever.

Leadership and Love

• Leading by fear does not produce sustainable success.
• An important characteristic of a righteous leader is gratitude. Acknowledging the blessings we have received helps us to put our work in proper perspective. It also helps us to put our challenges and trials in perspective.
• Although we cannot trust everyone all the time, part of building strong relationships with others is trusting them. We need to be willing to take that risk.
• Effective time management includes identifying the good things which we will not do because we have decided to focus on more important things. Good time management also includes using unexpected time wisely.
• We need to prioritize people over things. We should also work to make every place we live a Jerusalem – a city of peace.

Prayer

• We need to be willing to pray long enough for our will to be aligned with God’s will.
• We ought to remember that, when we pray, we are approaching the throne of God, and dedicate part of our prayers to praising and honoring Him.
• We ought to remember as we pray that God’s ways are higher than our ways, and that His response to our prayers may serve larger goals than the ones we are pursuing.
• We would be wise to remember that God already knows everything about us, and that we can speak to Him with complete candor and honesty.
• We should remember that God is the same in all ages, and that He will answer our prayers of faith just as He answered people who prayed to Him in the past.