Astonishment!

You know how sometimes we just keep doing the same things over and over and over? And then, oddly enough, we get frustrated/upset/mad when we keep experiencing the same things.

I was reading in Alma 49 this morning. It was rather enlightening. In verses 5 through 9, it mentions three times the incredible astonishment of the Lamanites over finding their grand plans of destruction being thwarted. The scriptures use words like uttermost and exceeding to describe their astonishment. They were truly completely flabbergasted.

Why was this so? It was because the Nephites had prepared for battle "in a manner which never had been known" before.

So, I asked myself..."Self, what is there in your life that you need to change and do in a manner that you have never known before?" I got some good ideas there.

Then I also questioned, "What enemies could I completely blindside by this course of action?" I pictured what the Lamanite's faces may have looked like when they saw what the Nephites had done. I wonder if the Nephites threw up a fisted arm and exclaimed, "Yes!" when they saw them.

In our lives today, Lucifer and his followers would suppose "that they should be privileged to come upon them as they had hitherto done". What if they get thrown for a loop today, this week, this month? Score a point for the good guys, huh?

There's today's take on a story I've read many, many times before. I love how one can always find something new in the scriptures. :)