We must face our trials - the battles of life - with faith and confidence. The stripling warriors had grown up in a pacifist community with parents that had covenanted to never fight again. They had never lifted swords previously, but this was their response in Alma 56:46: "behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth".
We must be selfless and willing to give our lives in service to others. I think those who join the military to protect the freedoms we enjoy in this country exemplify this same spirit, but we can also have this attitude in other areas of our lives. Look for ways to serve others. In Alma 56:47 we read, "and they did think more upon the liberty of theirfathers than they did upon their lives."
Teaching our children is so important! This is what these young warriors said about their mothers: "they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it." Alma 56:47-48
Here is the result of their great faith: "behold, to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had 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 did they fall upon the Lamanites, that they did frighten them." Alma 56:56. These young men had never fought before, but they were filled with the strength of God to overcome overwhelming odds. Whenever we are on the Lord's side, there be more with us than against us regardless of what it may look like with our physical eyes.
In a later battle, they were again very outnumbered. While many of the Nephites were "about to give way" these stripling warriors "did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them." This faith and obedience miraculously saves their lives in this battle. Helaman describes the result:
25 And it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood; nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds.
26 And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power.
27 Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually. Alma 57:25-27
Similarly, we will not escape life's battles without injury; however, we can fight these battles in full confidence that through faith and obedience everything will work out alright. Helaman arrives at the same conclusion as he wraps up his epistle to Moroni by describing the miracle of the stripling warriors: "And those sons of the people of Ammon ... are with me in the city of Manti; and the Lord has supported them, yea, and kept them from falling by the sword, insomuch that even one soul has not been slain. But behold, they have received many wounds; nevertheless they stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has made them free; and they are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day; yea, they do observe to keep his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments continually; and their faith is strong in the prophecies concerning that which is to come." Alma 58:39-40
Let us be like the stripling warriors!
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