Not Punished But Taught

I was thinking about the people of Alma today. At first they rejected the prophet Abinadi but they later repented and were baptized. And yet, even though presumably they were forgiven of their sins, they were still led captive by the Lamanites and forced to do menial labor and have burdens heaped upon their backs just like the people of Limhi who hadn't repented. What was the point of their repentance if they still got punished? I don't think being led into captivity was just about punishment for their past sins. I think that they learned lessons about humility and trust and relying solely on the Lord that they could not have gotten elsewhere. And you can see that even though Alma's people and Limhi's people ended up in similar circumstances, you can argue that Alma's people were more blessed because they had chosen to humble themselves rather than to murmur and complain and rebel. The difference between being punished by God and taught by God seems mostly a difference in attitude and perspective. We may feel we deserve or do not deserve a certain trial but if we turn our will over to the Lord and humble ourselves before Him, then the lessons will be learned in a much easier and more fulfilling way. God does not give His children a stone when they need bread, nor a serpent when they need a fish. He does everything for a wise purpose. If we are brought low by our circumstances, the best we can do is to humble ourselves and seek the lessons we can learn uniquely from these specific trials, because we'll have a greater appreciation for the lessons and we won't drag them out painfully and unnecessarily with our stubborn refusal to learn the lessons we need to learn.