As I studied the scriptures today, I contemplated the similarity between the story of Ammon and King Lamoni with the situation between me and the woman I presented the thank-you card to. Of particular interest were the verses 16-19 and 28 of the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Alma.
I may be grabbing at air here, but I likened myself to Abish. Pertaining to my situation, I saw a wonderful goodness in that woman and wanted to share my joy with her family, and everyone else she may include. But instead of recognizing the kindness of their daughter and use the experience as a lesson, her parents murmured against me and attributed my actions to malicious intent.
Abish wanted to share a wonderful goodness with others, but when they saw what had been done, the people did not understand it and murmured and attributed it the devil. When she saw this, she became “exceedingly sorrowful, even unto tears”.
My own exceeding sorrow has excited a tremendous amount of tears. But unlike Abish, I do not have a verse 29. I am still confused about the whole ordeal. What am I to do? I have no queen to awake and subdue the contentions. I feel so helpless.
The girl and her family did come to church on Sunday (they had stopped attending our ward because of the card), but she went out of her way to avoid me. I’m walking on eggshells at my own ward meetings. Should I still acknowledge them the way I did before? Are they going to read more into that than is there? Should I just ignore them as they are me?
I cannot believe that is the right thing to do. But then again, I thought the right thing was to show her how much her kindness meant to me in the first place. Abish also thought it was the right thing to gather together the multitude. Were we so wrong?
