Root Cause

I was reading the story of Ammon and Lamoni today, and King Lamoni had a problem with bandits stealing all of his sheep. His attempt to resolve this recurring issue was to each time have the servants who were unable to prevent the theft executed. This might have seemed emotionally satisfying but the servants' abilities to prevent theft weren't exactly the root cause. What Lamoni really needed to do was try to root out and eliminate the thieves who were stealing from him. This may have been more difficult and complicated and would have required more patience and effort in the short run, but would have led to a more stable and sustainable long term future. As it was, Lamoni's sheep were still getting stolen and he was quickly garnering an increasingly negative reputation as an employer, making it more likely that after several rounds of executing his servants that the people he did send out would be less skilled and experienced and more likely to be distracted and terrified and unable to deal with a threat of more plunder. A lot of times we hack at the branches that poke us but leave the roots alone to grow newer and thicker and spikier branches to wound us even deeper. If we keep being assailed by the same problems, then we may need to look and see if we are using the same strategies to cope with these problems, and if we are, we may need to consider a deeper approach to addressing the problem. If we can have the courage and the humility and the patience to seek the necessary help from earthly and heavenly angels to pull out our problem by the roots then we will spend less energy and suffer less pain in the long run, even if it seems harder and scarier in the moment.