I See… Saving a Nation Through Prayer and Plainness

When modern Mormon men and women analyze the slender example of Enos in the Book of Mormon, we tend to focus on his excellent efforts to seek a personal testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ through monumental pondering and prayer. The Mormon Third Eye, however, without sacrificing the moral and message of Eno’s search for truth that has successfully inspired legions of current and future members of the church to seek their own testimonies, likes to highlight the underappreciated aspects of his struggles summarized into one action-packed chapter.  It is here, buried in a few corners of his narrative, we find Eno’s formula for saving a nation- prayer and plainness.

Before you try to save a nation, you have to determine if it is worth saving.  During his marathon prayer session, he asked the Lord to spare his bitter enemy, the Lamanite nation. God, in his ironic wisdom, promised Enos that not only would he save the Lamanites “in his own due time,” but also that he would do it via records of Nephite prophecies the Lamanites worked so hard to unsuccessfully destroy.

After Enos got off his knees he went to work defending his own people from their own internal destruction.  His weapon of choice was “plainness of speech,” the natural enemy of today’s political correctness: “And there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness, preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God, and all these things—stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord. I say there was nothing short of these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, would keep them from going down speedily to destruction.“

Would this strategy work in saving our nation today?  Our living prophets and apostles must think so, because they have been preaching a message of moral purity and adherence to eternal family values that could be described as harsh by today’s politically correct bully pulpit.  In a world that obfuscates the truth with mixed messages on gender, marriage, and agency, wise and inspired church leadership teach us in plain terms that “gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose,” and that “marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God.”  Success in family life is achieved not by any choice, but by right choices: "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

Are we ready to try the Enos formula? I pray for this nation- that our leaders and governments, given the luxury of choice, will make right choices; then I oftimes speak with plainness on this blog.  Join me!