Like Father, Like Son

I think it is interesting that Alma—the one who had been such a rebellious youth— had a son who went astray.  Corianton did not rebel against his father since he did go on the mission to the Zoramites in the first place, but he succumbed to temptation and apparently caused quite a few problems on their mission.  I have to think that the counsel that Alma gave to Corianton in Alma 39-42 was similar to the kind of counsel that Alma’s own father would have given him when he was in his rebellious state as a youth.  Alma must have done a lot of reflecting about his own sins from his early life as he pondered what he should say to Corianton.  It’s interesting that of the three sets of counsel that he gave his sons, Corianton—the one son who had actually committed serious sin—was the only one to whom he didn’t relate his own sins and story of how he came to receive forgiveness.  I wonder if it was because he didn’t want Corianton to justify his sins because his father had also made serious mistakes when he was younger.  One of the last things that he told Corianton was “Do not endeavor to excuse yourself in the least point because of your sins” (Alma 42:30).  Perhaps he had a problem with making excuses for his improper behavior.  But I think that Alma did want Corianton to understand his own story of forgiveness, but for some reason he didn’t think he was the best one to relate it to Corianton.  After Alma told his story of repentance to both Helaman and Shiblon, he then said to Corianton, “I command you to take it upon you to counsel with your elder brothers in your undertakings” (Alma 39:10).  It may be that Alma was hoping that Helaman and Shiblon would encourage Corianton and relate to their brother what they had learned about their father’s life.  Ultimately we know that Corianton did repent and continued as a missionary, something that must have brought great joy to Alma (see Alma 49:30).