The stupid loser priests of King Noah start a war

This post is about Mosiah chapter 20. Limhi (Noah's more righteous son) has led the people into a peace treaty with the Lamanites. It's not exactly the greatest of terms (half of everything goes to tribute) but at least the Lamanites will refrain from killing them.
After two years a gigantic Lamanite army comes out of the hills to war against Limhi's people. What the heck? Obviously Limhi's people are bewildered and irritated but they rise to the occasion. They fight to defend their families, like lions and dragons.
Finally they capture/find on the ground left for dead the Lamanite king. Upon it questioning he reveals that twenty-four of their young women had been kidnapped recently and the Lamanites attacked the Limhites in retribution.
Limhi is concerned. He offers to search his people to see if they can find the Lamanite's daughters, but Gideon (one of my very favorite Book of Mormon characters) knows who is to blame. Those pesky priests they've been looking for. Kidnapping young women and carrying them off into the wilderness is exactly the kind of thing they would do.
Sure enough when the wicked priests stumbled upon a regularly convened girls-only dance party (what was this exactly?) they couldn't help themselves. After watching for a while, they decided the best thing to do would be to carry the girls off.
I often feel hesitant to label someone as a "bad guy." We all know that people are complex and that there are a myriad of reasons why they behave the way they do, but the priests of King Noah? They were bad guys. They cause so many problems. They come up again and again throughout Mosiah and Alma. Their posterity cause problems for generations. I'm so irritated whenever I read about them.
Anyways, morals of this story. 1) Communicate with people, especially when you're upset. If the Lamanite king had chatted with Limhi before deciding to attack him, a lot of lives would have been spared. 2) Know where your priests are. We all have weaknesses, liabilities or consequences for past mistakes that can harm us if we aren't aware of them. Be vigilant. 3) People will get mad at you, even when you haven't done anything wrong and that sucks. But it's life. We all have to deal with it. If anyone has good suggestions on how to deal with it better let me know, I'm still working on it.

Having Sealed the Truth of His Words by His Death

After Abinadi's beautiful sermon on Jesus Christ, King Noah  says "we will put you to death because you said that God will come down among the children of men."
They killed him literally because he testified of Jesus Christ. 
I remember a few years ago there was a shooting somewhere and the shooter asked the people if they were Christian and if they said yes, he shot them. I remember thinking to myself, 'Is that really what the Lord expects of me? He wants me, the mother of four young children, to be honest in that situation and die for my beliefs?'
In the United States, where I live, the idea of being killed because you are a Christian seems so far-fetched it's something we don't think about.
This chapter in Mosiah (Chapter 17) made me think of this talk by Elder Dennis E Simmons from April 2004 called "But If Not..."    He cites this scripture in Daniel (3:17-18) Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are threatened with a fiery death, not unlike Abinadi. Their answer is full of faith. They say (with typical teenage boy confidence) God will deliver us from your measly little fire. But if not, we will still not worship your gods. Elder Simmons says "They knew they could trust God - even if things didn't turn out the way they hoped."
The Lord does expect us to be willing to die for our testimonies - with perfect trust in Him that even if we die (or something less melodramatic happens to us) He will consecrate it for our gain and the gain of my family. I could answer a shooter and say "I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I will die so you will know the truth of my words," with faith that either the Lord will deliver me out of his hands or He will take care of my little ones after I'm gone.
It is unlikely that I will ever be in such a situation, usually it will be a more subtle consequence: ridicule, ostracism or mockery. But in either case I know what I will do and that brings me peace. 

Progressive Beatitudes

Do you know the beatitudes by heart? It's something I've always thought that I should do but haven't yet.

1) blessed are the poor in Spirit
2) blessed are they that mourn
3) blessed are the meek
4) blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness
5) blessed are the merciful
6) blessed are the pure in heart
7) blessed are the merciful
8) blessed are the peacemakers
9) blessed are the persecuted

The Bible Dictionary tells us that the beatitudes are progressive and interrelated.
thegospelcoalition.org, an Evangelical Christian website, proposes the idea that there are roots, shoots and fruit. The first three beatitudes being the roots, #4 is a shoot and the last four are the fruit. A perfected saint would go through all the steps and would inherit eternal life.
We start at the beginning, with being poor in spirit, and work our way towards persecution.
This has always bothered me. Especially since being a peacemaker comes right before being persecuted. Should I seek persecution? It doesn't seem like something a peacemaker should do, but the Lord says if you are persecuted "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven." (Matthew 5:12)
Then there's this quote from Brigham Young:
"Let any people enjoy peace and quietness, unmolested, undisturbed, never be persecuted for their religion and they are very likely to neglect their duty, to become cold and indifferent and lose their faith."
It's enough to make you want to go out and pick a fight right? But we know that can't be right, that's not what Jesus would do.
I liked this talk from President Hunter. It's a little older, from 1980. It's called God Will Have a Tried People.
In it he talks about the idea of opposition. Persecution is one of its forms, but it can also appear as physical pain, emotional sorrow, wayward children, financial reversals or family disappointments. The idea is that the Lord will try us. I like to change 'blessed are the persecuted' in my head to 'blessed are those who endure through their trials to the end.'