BOM Enos

Today’s reading, the single-chapter book of Enos, offers one of the most popular brief stories in the Book of Mormon, a story that is often cited to illustrate points about prayer, forgiveness, and many other topics.  And rightly so.

I’ll pick up a couple of aspects of it.

First, any parent, and perhaps any missionary, should take heart from this story.  Enos’s father may sometimes have felt that his teachings were sailing right past the young man.  And maybe they were.  But, eventually, they sank in.  They become important to him, urgent, and he needed to know whether they were true.

The fact is that people who aren’t ready to hear the message of the Gospel at one point may, with changes in their lives and circumstances, be far more open at some later time.  I’ve seen spectacular instances of this, and perhaps you have, as well.

Second, I’m struck by the way in which Enos’s circle of concern expands.  He moves, successively, from praying for himself to praying for his fellow Nephites to praying for the hostile Lamanites, whose unattractive traits during his period are memorably outlined in verse 20.

“Love is one of the chief characteristics of Deity,” said Joseph Smith, “and ought to be manifested by those who aspire to be the sons of God.  A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 174).