Covenant-making warriors and Sheri Dew

Why do we need covenants?

What is the purpose of covenants?

I was preparing my visiting teaching lesson which was about the 2000 young stripling warriors and their mothers and covenants they had made and I wondered about the questions above. While contemplating the whys and whats, a thought by Sheri Dew kept popping into my head. 

We must be more like women of God and not like women of the world.

This brought to my remembrance a talk of hers I had read several years ago. I found it again and as I scanned through it, I was struck by how that talk was exactly what the visiting teaching message for this month was about and answered my question about covenants. A coincidence? Not likely. I quickly printed a copy for each of my ladies and flew out the door.

COVENANTS let us declare whose "camp" we are in.

COVENANTS allow us access to a power in our fight against all that is unholy.

COVENANTS are the means to prove to the Lord that we can be trusted. He wants to bless us with all that he has, but we need to know that we can be trusted with all powers and principalities.

Here are just some excerpts from her talk. To read the entire talk go to speeches.byu.edu.

Why do we need covenants:

• Before the sons of Helaman began their campaign, they entered into a covenant "that they never would give up their liberty, but they would fight in all cases to protect the Nephites and themselves from bondage" (Alma 53:17). It is the same with us. The first step toward consecration and total commitment to the Lord is making covenants with Him. That is what we do at baptism. That is what we do again, later, with powerful spiritual ramifications, when we enter the house of the Lord.

What is the purpose of covenants:

• There is power in making covenants. Weekly, as we renew our covenants and promise to take upon ourselves the name of the Son, to always remember Him, and to keep His commandments, we receive in return a transcendent promise, one filled with heavenly power: that we "may always have his Spirit to be with [us]" (Moroni 4:3). Having the Holy Ghost with us--and learning to hear His voice--is a key, perhaps the single most profound key, to remaining steadfast and immovable on the Lord's side of the line. And it all begins by making a covenant.

• The stripling warriors not only kept their covenants, but they performed "every word of command with exactness" (Alma 57:21). In other words, they kept their covenants with precision. A half-hearted effort to keep the Sabbath day holy or be morally clean or tell the truth or dress modestly is really no effort at all. Joseph Smith didn't say that we sort of believe in being "honest, true, chaste, benevolent, [and] virtuous" (Articles of Faith 1:13). On Mount Sinai the Lord didn't declare, "Thou shalt not steal--unless you're in a real bind." He didn't say, "Thou shalt rarely covet." He didn't say, "Thou shalt not commit adultery--very often." He said, "Thou shalt not," clearly delineating lines we are not to cross--lines that represent breaches in integrity or morality or virtue so serious that they drive the Spirit away and lead ultimately to the destruction of our souls; lines to stay away from lest we lose control of our thoughts, our motives, or our actions and step into Lucifer's territory where we come under his control.

• Men and women who sell their birthright for a mess of pottage will tell you that their demise began with something small, with some seemingly insignificant breach of integrity that escalated. The little things do matter. It is not possible to profess righteousness while flirting with sin.

• The stripling warriors were believers. Their faith in Christ was active and dynamic. They believed that He could move mountains--not to mention battalions of bloodthirsty Lamanites bent on their destruction--if they had faith in Him. Thus, when asked to put their lives on the line, they responded without hesitation, "Our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; [so] let us go forth." They believed that "if they did not doubt, God would deliver them" (Alma 56:46–47).

• [W]e must first believe, as did the sons of Helaman, who hadn't been trained in warfare but who had been taught the things of the Spirit. Consequently, they "fought as if with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength; and with such mighty power" (Alma 56:56).

• Not only was their faith in the Lord strong at the beginning of their march, but it remained strong throughout their ordeal. Every one of these young men was wounded, and at one point they nearly starved to death (see Alma 57:25, 58:7). Yet instead of wavering, they turned to the Lord and pled for strength--which they received (see Alma 58:10–12). Having faith didn't make their challenges disappear. It didn't make marching in Helaman's army easy. It didn't disqualify them from pain. But their faith did enable them to draw upon the power of God, which sustained them through their test and ultimately delivered them.