Fiery Darts of Destruction

I was reviewing the story of Samuel the Lamanite and considered a few parallels of his story that relate to us in our everyday lives. Samuel is a prophet that stops by a neighboring town to preach the Doctrine of Christ to the wicked people. The people respond by rejecting his message and throwing him out of their city. As Samuel heads home, he is visited by an angel who tells him to go back and try to preach to the people again. Being obedient, Samuel again enters the city and when no one will listen to him, he climbs upon a wall and exclaims truths to the multitude. Some believe his words, repent and become converted to the truth.
Helaman 16:2 says,

"But as many as there were who did not believe in the words of Samuel were angry with him; and they cast stones at him upon the wall, and also many shot arrows at him as he stood upon the wall; but the spirit of the Lord was with him, insomuch that they could not hit him with their stones neither with arrows."

I related this to myself by asking the questions, What stones and arrows do people throw at me today? How was Samuel protected from the stones and darts of the adversary? What do we need to do to have the same protection? I think that sometimes as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we may be persecuted for our beliefs by some who don't understand, or even in a daily circumstance we may be exposed to things that hurt or affect us in a negative way. By following Samuel's example, we too can be protected when we have the spirit of the Lord with us. I believe that the spirit is more powerful than we know and that as we have that power with us continually, we will be blessed in ways we cannot even imagine. Miracles are happening in our day and we can witness them for ourselves as long as we are faithful!