Land and Liberty in Alma 43-44

Reading this morning in Alma, I have been struck by a couple of things. First of all, in Alma 43:48-50, I love how Moroni, when sensing the depression of his army/people around him in the face of the extreme harshness of the Lamanites, sent forth, and "inspired their hearts with these thoughts–yea, the thoughts of their lands, their liberty, yea, their freedom from bondage....and it came to pass that they turned upon the Lamanites, and they cried with one voice unto the Lord their God, for their liberty and their freedom from bondage, And they began to stand against the Lamanites with power; and in that selfsame hour that they cried unto the Lord for their freedom, the Lamanites began to flee before them." How amazing! I felt like this went hand in hand with verse 23 of that chapter where Moroni, knowing Alma to be a prophet, asked him where they should go to confront their enemies. We must have the connection with God to not only give us inspiration about where and when to pick our battles, but to give us divine inspiration and strength as we "battle" in causes that are just, even in the face of overwhelming or daunting odds!
Vs. 45: Nevertheless, the Nephites were inspired by a better cause, for they were not fighting for monarchy nor for power but they were fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church.
I also came across the following and felt it had interesting implications: Alma 44:5: "by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country". It was their liberty that tied them to their lands and country, because they had the liberty to work it, to farm it, to become connected with it and have stewardship over it. Amazing! It reminds me of "Little Britches" by Ralph Moody, which I am reading right now with Vanguard Youth, and where it talks about how Ralph felt a sense of pride and ownership in their dilapidated property, even upon first viewing it, a craving to care for it, a sense of stewardship. We must have the liberty to own property, for in a very real sense, it gives us those same feelings that Ralph experienced so quickly. Of course, we must work for it, because, like anything else in our lives, it will fall into disrepair with neglect. But with that labor, comes that sense of ownership, that sense of stewardship, and an underlying sense of responsibility...the kind of feelings that enable men and women to defend it, when necessary, as in the above scripture.