Title of Liberty

Growing up, one of my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon was always the Title of Liberty. In Alma 46, Moroni is preparing the people for war and speaking out in the name of freedom. Amalickiah has created a lot of wickedness and desires to be king. In verse 12, Moroni does the following in response:

12 And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.

Obviously, the reasons that Moroni and the Nephites were fighting were just: God, religion, freedom, peace, wives, children. However, something that was pointed out to me that I hadn't noticed before is the order that these motives are placed in. As you go from item to item, you realize that the previous item you read is necessary for the item proceeding it. For example, in order for there to be religion, there must be God. In order for there to be true freedom, religion must be allowed. For peace, freedom is required. It is so interesting that this order is chosen because we realize that all of these things are things that we enjoy and sometimes seem to take for granted living in the United States in 2017. Sure, things don't always seem to be ideal in politics because people are never completely in agreement, but we can definitely say that we enjoy these things that Moroni stood for so many years ago.

Without God, none of these things would be possible. The Nephites knew that they were fighting "in memory of (their) God" because they knew that was the only way they could survive. For us, this means that we must look at the order of priorities that we place: if we were to fight for our rights and freedoms, which would be the most important for us? Which do we hold closest? As we do so, we will realize what we need to do to become more like Moroni and be able to hoist our own Title of Liberty.