4 And now this was a time that there was a great mourning and lamentation heard throughout all the land, among all the people of Nephi—
5 Yea, the cry of widows mourning for their husbands, and also of fathers mourning for their sons, and the daughter for the brother, yea, the brother for the father; and thus the cry of mourning was heard among all of them, mourning for their kindred who had been slain. 6 And now surely this was a sorrowful day; yea, a time of solemnity, and a time of much fasting and prayer.
I cannot imagine the extent of the mourning and sorrow of these people. Everyone in every family had cause to mourn for someone who had been killed.
I also imagine there were many among the Lamanites who also mourned for the loss of their husbands and fathers and brothers.
And all of this death, destruction and pain for what!? For what. Because those people let Satan get ahold of their hearts to be instruments in his hands to destroy both them and anyone else they could take down with them. Surely contention is the spirit of the devil, and if we are not careful will eventually lead us to do unspeakable things— even killing others.
The silver lining in all of this is that it humbled the people into praying and fasting much. At least their hearts, for the most part, were not turned bitter and hard, but softened in humility, and they sought their God more diligently.
War will do one of two things to people, or rather, people will react to war in one of two ways. They will either harden their hearts against God and become a violent, bloodthirsty people, or they will soften their hearts and turn to God. The people at this time, fortunately, chose the better path.
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