Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives...
And now it came to pass that when [the Lamanites] had surrendered themselves up unto us, behold, I numbered those young men who had fought with me, fearing lest there were many of them slain. But behold, to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength; and with such mighty power did they fall upon the Lamanites, that they did frighten them; and for this cause did the Lamanites deliver themselves up as prisoners of war (Alma 56:47, 55-56).
Helaman explained that "they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it" (Alma 56:47-48). As these young warriors put their faith in their mothers' promise that God would deliver them, they were able to fight with "miraculous strength" and "as with the strength of God" so that not one soul of them was lost despite their own inexperience and overwhelming odds.
Without trying to steal any of the credit from the valiant mothers, which is often noticed and appropriately so, popular youth speaker John Bytheway has wondered aloud what the fathers of these young men were doing the whole time. The simple answer comes about twenty verses earlier in the same chapter:
And now it came to pass in the second month of this year, there was brought unto us many provisions from the fathers of those my two thousand sons (Alma 56:27).
The Lord has shared his plan for successful families in The Family: A Proclamation to the World. It reads in part:
By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners.
Fathers are given three roles in this paragraph: to preside, to provide, and to protect. Presiding in love and righteousness requires knowing the doctrines of the gospel, striving toward self-improvement first, gently and meekly leading in the home and then teaching children what they need to know and do. Whenever possible, fathers should also provide for their family's needs and maintain the home as a sanctuary that is safe from the physical and spiritual dangers of the world.
The fathers of the stripling warriors were valiant and brave men who led by example. They had been violent and savage before they were converted to the Lord, but when they were taught the gospel they committed with all of their heart, might, mind and strength. They left their homeland to seek religious freedom, ultimately settling as peaceful neighbors among a people who had previously been their most bitter enemies. They covenanted with the Lord that they would never again shed the blood of mankind and kept that promise even at the peril of their own lives.
When war broke out between their home country and their new country, they were loyal to the Lord. Though they could not fight themselves, they offered their faith and their two thousand sons in defense of their freedoms. While their sons were away, they continued to magnify their duty as fathers by sending 'many provisions'. From these verses we see that both the mothers and fathers of the stripling warriors were fulfilling their divinely appointed roles and contributing to the divine protection and ultimate success of their sons in battle.
As our kids leave the house each morning, and one day for good, they step onto a great battlefield. The perils are no less serious than those faced by the stripling warriors. The enemy of their souls will attempt to prey on their inexperience and use every strategy he knows to make them feel outnumbered, doubtful and discouraged. He will seek to wrap them in the chains of sin and drag them down to a miserable destruction.
Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.
As we fulfill the same divinely appointed roles that existed two thousand years ago, and that have been taught again in our time, we prepare our children to fight with the strength of God and to be preserved by his miraculous power. And what's more, we will teach them how to raise their own families in the joy and protection of the Lord.
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