12 They were a wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, believing in the tradition of their fathers, which is this—Believing that they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem because of the iniquities of their fathers, and that they were wronged in the wilderness by their brethren,and they were also wronged while crossing the sea....
17 And thus they have taught their children that they should hate them, and that they should murder them, and that they should rob and plunder them, and do all they could to destroy them; therefore they have an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi.
The Lamanites felt completely wronged and betrayed! The verses that are missing here, verses 13-16, talk about more reasons that they felt wronged, but I feel like verse 12 states it well enough: they felt that Nephi and Lehi had wronged Laman and Lemuel. Now, what is the consequence of this? Verse 17 shows us that because of this belief, they were taught to hate and murder the Nephites.
What we learn from this is the danger of perceived wrongs. Because of the wicked tradition of the fathers of the Lamanites, they perceived that they had been wronged. Even if this would've been real, they have held onto that hatred for so many generations that it has continue to grow inside of them. This principle is similar to the way we interact with other people. Are we actually be wronged or just perceiving it that way? If we are actually wronged, why haven't we forgiven them? Are we letting that grow into a hatred?
The Book of Mormon teaches us things TO do and things NOT to do, and this is one of the things that we learn not to do. Let us all forgive others and never perceive wrongs that aren't actually there.
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