Cycles

                People run in cycles of one kind or another.  I am in a cycle now – get out of bed, do housework, complete assignments, go to bed, get up, and start all over again.  Maybe it isn’t that bad – but it seems like it at times.

                I read this week of another cycle in my Book of Mormon studies.   (See Helaman 11:18-12:6.)  This great book of scripture that written for us documents a cycle that is often called the pride cycle.  The Old Testament also documents the pride cycle taking place in the Israelite nation.  The pride cycle recurs over and over again in the rise and fall of people and nations.  Both the Nephite nation and the Jaredite nation who live and thrived on the American continents were destroyed because they allowed themselves to get caught in the pride cycle and down to destruction.  The Israelites too suffered from their experiences in the pride cycle.

                The cycle starts with prosperity and riches followed in turn by pride, wickedness, and destruction.  When conditions get bad enough, the cycle moves to humility, which then brings righteousness and riches for a time before moving into pride once again.  Our nation has also fallen prey to the pride cycle from time to time only to be saved because there were more righteous people than wicked people. 

                We are still going through the pride cycle.  I believe we are somewhere in the pride and wickedness area as seen by the corruption in our nation and the support for same-sex marriage and abortion.  We are most likely past the prosperity and riches area, and we are definitely not in the humility and righteousness area.  Our safety as a nation depends on our willingness to humble ourselves and turn to the God of the land who is Jesus Christ.  What do you think of the chances of this happening?

                Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles questioned why societies continue to go through the pride cycle:  “I guess one of the greatest mysteries of mortality is why mankind fails to learn from history.  Why do those who profess to be true followers of Christ so often become victims of the enticements of the world” (Ensign, Nov. 1992, 16).  

                It looks to me that we are on the slippery slope of destruction and picking up speed.  At the moment we are being spared because of the prayers and actions of the righteous among us.  How long will the righteous stand firm and steadfast?  God is the only one who knows what our future holds.  Will we join the many societies that failed to learn from previous generations?