Two Lessons from Omni

I'm reading the Book of Mormon again this year, and I'm learning things that possibly I hadn't learned before. Or things about which I needed a reminder.

Consider the book of Omni. It may be just one chapter. In one sense, it's a lot of record keepers writing only one or two verses and then passing the plates onto the next record keeper in a sort of game of Gospel Hot Potato. In fact, it's the only book in the Book of Mormon named after a guy who wasn't all that great of a guy.

Anyhow, two things stuck out big-time when I read Omni.

In Omni 1:2, we read about Omni himself: "But behold, I of myself am a wicked man, and I have not kept the statutes and the commandments of the Lord as I ought to have done."

To me, these are some of the saddest words a human being could ever think or write. Regret is hell on Earth.

I think about my own experiences with regret, and I feel for Omni. I want to believe he still had time to turn things around after recording this assessment of his own character. And when I do so, I recommit myself to being a better human being afterward. I'm grateful for an Atonement that helps to wipe away the pain of regret and for second chances that help prevent possible future regret.

The second lesson is in the Nephites' discovery of the people of Mulek at Zarahemla. As the two peoples merge to become one group, Amaleki notes that the people of Zarahemla "had become exceedingly numerous . . . (but) their language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and they denied the being of their Creator; and Mosiah, nor the people of Mosiah, could understand them" (v. 17).

In short, the Nephites both (1) had the brass plates and (2) had kept a record, while the Mulekites had done neither. As a result, the Nephites were far better off, while the Mulekites lived in ignorance and apathy resulting from carelessness.

In other words, those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Not having the brass plates (scriptures) was devastating to the Mulekites, both spiritually and morally, while having the plates had blessed the Nephites. Education is an important gift for one generation to pass down to the next. And so forth.

It's amazing, time and again, how all of this was written "For Our Day."