Welcome to Closer to Christ through General Conference,
where two friends who love Jesus share our own
approach to studying the most recent General
Conference talks. This is Abbey and Amy. Let's
jump into it. Today we're discussing Heart and
Not Your Heart by Elder Christopher H. Kim of
the Seventy. Just want to say welcome to all
of our listeners. We're so happy to be here with
you today. Amy, it's good to be with you too.
Thanks, Abby. It was so fun reviewing this talk
by Elder Kim because in it he was able to teach
us about the importance of remaining humble and
soft -hearted. Right in the beginning, he says
this, The restoration of the gospel of Jesus
Christ began when God the Father and his beloved
Son appeared to the young Joseph Smith, answering
his humble prayer. As part of the restoration,
Joseph Smith translated an ancient record by
the gift and power of God. This record contains
God's dealings with ancient inhabitants of the
Americas and contains the fullness of the everlasting
gospel. Then he goes on to talk about the examples
that we have in the Book of Mormon. of those
who have hard hearts themselves. And as a little
boy, he wondered to himself, why Laman and Lemuel
couldn't just listen to their father and Nephi
and even an angel and just do good? Why couldn't
they believe the gospel truths that were given
to them? And in 1 Nephi, he comes across the
answer to his question. It says, Nephi was grieved
because of the hardness of their hearts. Nephi
asked his other brothers, how is it that ye are
so hard in your hearts and so blind in your minds?
And I've wondered the same things I read about
Laman and Lemuel. And we've talked about this
concept before. It's easy to see yourself as
Nephi because that's the example we're striving
for. But have you ever stopped to wonder if each
of us at a season or moment in our life are actually
more like Laman and Lemuel? Having that hard
heart. And I can say yes to myself about it.
I think that the better lesson is in there that
it's like when you really take a look back at
the story, you're like, we all have the tendency
to be like that. And it seems so obvious when
we're reading that script and we're like, why
wouldn't you just be like Nephi and Sam? You
all have the same parents. Why is it not resonating?
I love this. I think it brings us to the question,
you know, what is this hardness of heart or what
does that look like? And the reason we want to
know that is there are going to be times in our
life that we're more hard -hearted and it's going
to be harder for things to penetrate. So if we
can kind of have that dialogue and kind of prepare
for that in advance, maybe they don't come so
frequently or maybe we can turn the heart back
into the one that, you know. Father wants for
us that soft, pliable heart. For your question,
the way the Elder Kim explained it, he said the
Korean translation of hardness in the Book of
Mormon uses the Chinese character wan, which
means stubborn, and ak meaning wicked. I thought
that was pretty interesting. So when we harden
our hearts, we're blinded and good things cannot
come into our hearts or in our minds. Also, we
become stubborn and begin to place more focus
on worldly desires, closing our hearts to the
things of God. Another thing, we choose to focus
solely on our own thoughts while not accepting
the opinions and guidance of others. As I'm reading
these, I'm just thinking, you know, like that
there are... Like you were saying, seasons. There
are times and seasons when each one of these,
you know, I'm like, yeah, I definitely have done
that. You know what I mean? And you have a tendency
to do these at different times in your life.
We choose not to open our hearts to things of
God, but instead to the influence of things of
the world and the adversary. And that's the thing,
too, is it comes in so subtly. You know what
I mean? Things of the adversary, you might not
even realize it is. And then you... take a little
bit of an accountant or account, and it becomes
more obvious. When our hearts are hardened, we
resist the influence of the Holy Ghost, and we
are slow to remember the Lord over time. We become
past feeling. That's quite a laundry list of
things, like I was saying, that put us on the
fast track of a less than life. I was just thinking,
you know, less than happy, less than obedient
to God, less than fulfilled, less than our best,
less than our fullest potential. I'd love to
focus on the opposite of the state of a hardened
heart because it feels kind of bleak. Yeah. Before
let's do that, let's do jump into the opposite.
I do want to cover this one point, though. Alma
taught the people in Ammonihah that some would
reject the spirit of God on account of the hardness
of their heart. They'll harden their hearts to
them, given the lesser portion of the word until
they know nothing concerning his mysteries. And
then eventually the spirit withdraws and the
Lord will take away his word from those that
have hardened their heart, just like Laman and
Lemuel. That's what I was thinking. I'm like,
oh, we've seen that with them, right? It's interesting
to note because Laman and Lemuel continually
hardened their hearts and resisted the feelings
of the Holy Ghost, and they choose not to accept
the words and teaching of their father in Nephi.
Then they ultimately reject eternal truths from
God. And we have the perfect example of where
this seeming small sin practically continues
over long periods of time, even to the point
where it was bred for future generations to carry
that hardness of heart. You can say they're a
perfect example of what not to do. of a life
lived in discipleship is your goal. So let's
do go back to your idea, get out of the bleak
situation and see like, how is this possible
to keep ourselves from having that hard heart?
I love that. Okay, so it's true. We get a lesson
right from the beginning of the Book of Mormon
with the example and the downfall of Laman and
Lemuel. I've been thinking about that a lot this
week. I think it's easy to see, even as a young
kid, like he was saying, you know, as we're listening
to their stories, that there is something or
maybe a lot of some things that were that they
were headed away from God. It's a great lesson
because it's so drastic. And also it unfolds
pretty quickly for us, right? We're able to see
it really within a few chapters. So in contrast
to Laman and Lemuel, we see pages and pages where
Nephi continually humbled himself, sought guidance
from the spirit of the Lord. And in return, the
Lord softens Nephi's heart. I love this part
where Nephi tells us that he did cry unto the
Lord and behold, he did visit me and did soften
my heart that I did believe. all the words which
he had been spoken by my father. So even Nephi
had questions. Questions are good. It means we
are thinking for ourselves and using our brains.
And what we do with those questions is everything
or where we take the question, right? Because
Nephi turned to his heavenly father in a time
when he sought clarity and truth. The Lord helped
Nephi to accept, to understand, and then also
to believe the mysteries of God and his words.
I also was re -listening to this part of the
Book of Mormon, and I loved it because when he
did ask, you know, as far as the Tree of Life
vision, when he asked, the angel to show it to
him. I think the spirit of the Lord said, do
you believe? And he said, yeah, you know that
I believe these things. And so it wasn't coming
from a place of like, my dad said this story.
I don't want to believe my dad. He just wanted
to believe it for himself. Yeah. He wanted to
see it for himself. And I also loved Abby that
through that vision, if you'll look at what.
what Lehi said about it and what Nephi said about
it, there was a little more clarification for
Nephi. And I feel like the Spirit taught me that
they both saw the exact same thing. But think
of it this way, for Lehi, that was probably just
blew him over. He was not expecting that. He
didn't know what he was going into and it just
came and it was probably a little bit overwhelming
for his senses. But then he told Nephi everything.
So Nephi kind of had like a, let's say a preview
to the movie. So when he got there, he was able
to see like a few more things because he had
more capacity. So I thought that was interesting
because he's like, to his brothers, he's like,
dad didn't talk about this part, but there was
this too. I think it was, I forget what it was,
if it was the filthy water or what it was, but
he explained it with further clarification. I
thought that was wonderful. And to me, someone
might look at that and say, well, there were
two different things. To me, I'm like, no, he
had more capacity because his father shared with
him in advance and he had a foundation of learning.
So I love that part. Also, Okay, we're able to,
I'm going to jump into some questions. Here are
some great questions to ask ourselves. Where
do I turn when I have questions? Do I believe
that faith questions are good or bad? That's
kind of a fun one because we probably have grown
up thinking one thing. Maybe we think something
different or we see it differently. We tend to
be a lot more black and white when we're little
and maybe we have more experiences and a more
round. complete way of looking at things. And
maybe we look at things a little bit different.
I know that's happened with me. Like for me,
I don't think there are bad questions, especially
if I take them to the Lord and I'm looking like,
just like Nephi did like, yay, Lord, you know
that I believe, help me to see further. Like
I want my own sure understanding of this. I'm
thinking social media world. I think when people,
when people have faith questions, faith doubts,
and then they, you know, And this isn't to generalize,
but let's say that you have a hard heart and
you go into that process. What's the likelihood
that you're going to receive an answer that's
faith promoting? Not very good, right? So then
you're like, and I didn't get the answer that
I wanted to. Maybe they vacate their beliefs
and they leave the church and then they're really
vocal about it. Or I would say a lot of the time
people have these faith questions. They wrestle
with the Lord. They find a reason to soften their
heart, listen to the inspiration of the Spirit
and make some changes. changes and they come
on the other side of that with a stronger testimony
they're glad that they asked the question that
they did and a lot of times those are more like
spiritual and um like near to your heart so you're
not usually like broadcasting that to the world
right like i struggle with this thing and like
i've come out knowing my savior better that's
true but i would say i was as those thoughts
were coming to my mind though that is changing
slightly i do think that there is a there's a
surgent, like a, I don't say resurgence because
it hadn't happened before, but there is, there
are a ton of content creators that are happy
to share these broken moments and this faith
crisis and coming back to the Lord and softening
their hearts and coming back to and testifying
of that. So I would say where it's maybe been
more of a private thing when we've struggled
to ask questions and kept it to ourselves. that's
not that's not the case anymore there's a ton
of content out there a lot of podcasts comeback
podcast or there there's a multitude of them
that people will open up and they'll share their
story where they had the faith crisis and we
see what that like what what that led to. I think
if you're listening to it with the ears of like,
where was their heart in that? And how close
were they to the Spirit? And what little micro
changes in their life kind of led them to that?
Because they're looking back on the experience
from the perspective of being back in connection
with the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, a connection
with God, being closer to their Savior. So, you
know, you know that you're going to be built
up by these stories. You're going to say, okay,
what life experience had? And in not a judgmental
way, it's like, oh, that was such a small thing.
Stop going to church. Stop attending the temple
or whatever. You know, sometimes they're teenagers.
Maybe they haven't made those covenants. But
do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, for sure.
That's a really good point, Abby. Thank you.
So if we're looking at Elder Kim's outline, we
can... we can follow the suggestions that he
gave us. If we want to have this soft, pliable
heart, first we need to practice daily repentance.
Our Savior taught, Whoso repenteth and cometh
unto me as a little child, him will I receive.
And our prophet, our beloved prophet, President
Russell M. Nelson taught, Repenting is the key
to progress. Pure faith keeps us moving forward
on the covenant path. Please don't fear or delay
repenting. Satan delights in your misery. Start
today to experience the joy of putting off the
natural man. The Savior loves us always, but
especially when we repent. As we experience,
the joy of softening our hearts and coming to
the Lord, we become as a child, submissive, meek,
humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit
to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict
upon him, even as a child does submit to his
father. And I'm reading that and it just nods
back to a couple of talks ago as we talked about
the second temptation. Don't let Satan get in
the way of you getting closer to God by making
you think that you don't have the right to turn
to him. He joys. Was that the word that I read?
Yes. He joys in our repentance. It is key. When
we repent regularly, even daily, we see ourselves
as dependent on God and we make mistakes and
we follow the natural man. cannot return to him
without the intercession of his son. It's going
to require a savior. And he wants nothing more
than for us to turn to him and return to him
again and again. Absolutely, Abby. The second
one is that we can practice humility. Daily repentance,
like you were saying, will bring humility to
our hearts. So that's why it's the first one.
We want to become humble before the Lord, like
a little child who obeys their father. we will
then always have the Holy Spirit with us and
our hearts will be softened. So he talked about
that he and his wife, Sue, have known a wonderful
couple for the past four years. The husband had
converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
-day Saints, and his wife was a little more hesitant.
Although she was meeting with the missionaries
and she was reading the Book of Mormon, she found
it difficult to commit herself to enter the waters
of baptism. And then one day, She was reading
the Book of Mormon. It was actually in Moroni
743, which reads, And again, behold, I say unto
you that ye cannot have faith and hope, save
ye shall be meek and lowly of heart. If so, faith
and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before
God, save the meek and lowly in heart. So after
she read this, she realized what she needed to
do. The Spirit clearly spoke to her heart. She
thought she'd understood the meaning of being
meek and humble. However, her understanding was
not sufficient enough to have faith and hope
and obey the commandments of God. So she let
go of her stubbornness and her own wisdom. She
started to humble herself through sincere repentance.
She began to understand humility in the perspective
of God's eyes. And then she relied on Heavenly
Father and she prayed to soften her own heart.
Sounds like that's quite a process, right? Through
these prayers, she felt the Spirit witness to
her. that Heavenly Father wanted her to be baptized.
So both husband and wife shared that the more
they became humble, the more they could understand
the words of God and their hearts were softened
to follow the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ.
I feel like this is a beautiful illustration
of how humility helps. us to be teachable. I
appreciate the process that he shared here. It's
not like a flip the switch type of thing most
of the time. And notice they both noted with
that increased humility came increased understanding
of God's word. I really love that. I love that.
And I also love this story because it notes like
in the husband's case, it came a little faster
for him. He was ready to commit to the watershed
baptism, knew this to be the truth. But again,
there's nothing wrong with it taking a little
bit more time. And what I think we see from this
story is that maybe a deeper testimony of the
beauty of having a humble, softened heart. Because,
you know, just because you join the church and
you enter the watershed baptism doesn't mean
it's going to be smooth sailing. So I think this
more patient, practiced approach. has probably
served her well, like as she's continued to be
a disciple of Jesus Christ. And anytime we follow
our own process and do what we need to do to
be fully converted, that's the right way, I feel
like. Not just like, oh, my husband's ready to
do it. I'll just do it with some hesitation and
maybe it will come to me. She actually did it
the right way. The timing worked out between
her and the Lord, I would say. Let's go to the
third step. Third, we must trust and rely on
our Savior. Nephi was a great example of allowing
his heart to be softened by trusting the Lord.
This is what he taught. He said, I have trusted
in thee and I will trust in thee forever. I will
not put my trust in the arm of flesh. Similarly,
in a revelation given to the prophet Joseph,
the Lord said, put your trust in that spirit
which leadeth to do good, yea, to do justly,
to walk humbly. When we put our trust in the
Lord and rely on him, he will soften our heart
and we will be supported in our trials, troubles,
and afflictions. Again, that doesn't say that
they go away. They don't disappear. We're supported.
Yeah. Our Savior Jesus Christ was the ultimate
example of meekness. Let's turn in 2 Nephi 31
.7. It says, But notwithstanding he being holy,
he showeth unto the children of men that according
to the flesh he humbled himself before the Father,
and witnessed unto the Father that he would be
obedient unto him in keeping his commandments.
So even though he was holy and perfect, he humbled
himself before the Father and he was obedient
to him by being baptized. That's a great example
we have. This is just one of the greatest things
to remember. Even though Jesus was the only perfect
person to walk this earth, he submitted to his
Father. He had every right, definitely more than
I, to say, I'm going to sit this one out. I don't
really need it. But that wasn't his character.
His whole desire was to do the will of the Father
and to save each of us through His ultimate sacrifice,
giving of His life and then also taking it up
again. If we would have a soft heart and turn
to Him for that forgiveness. At the end of His
mortal life, our Savior Jesus Christ submitted
His own will to His fathers by partaking of the
bitter cup. The suffering caused Him to tremble
because of pain and to bleed at every pore and
to suffer both body and spirit. The Savior asked
that... He might not drink the bitter cup and
shrink. Nevertheless, he said, glory be to the
Father. And he partook and finished his preparations
unto the children of men. The only time that
we really see the Savior asking for a pass on
doing one of these hard things is like in that
moment. Like if I don't have to do it, I'd prefer
not to do this hard thing. But with the soft
heart that he had that he said, but if this is
the way that you see is that this is the whole
thing. then then we'll go through it and i think
it's fascinating that even he i mean he knows
the plan he's here to fulfill his part of the
plan but in those words in that moment it does
sound like he had to have that own like leap
of faith that we have to have absolutely and
that at the end of that question asking so i
again you pose the question is it okay to have
um a faith question can we say that that's the
savior having his faith question we don't see
it much because he was always just so willing
to do as the Father had of, you know, the accounts
of what we have record of. But this moment that's
marked in scripture lets us know it's okay to
ask Heavenly Father, is this the plan that you
have for me? Is this the only way that you can
see me doing the things that I need to in this
life? It's a really good point. And obviously
his heart was soft and pliable and he knew immediately
that it was the way. And what does he do next?
He goes on to fulfill. difficult things for all
of us. Yeah, I love that. So even there, he modeled
what it looks like when you're asking, you know,
is there any other way? And then... Continue.
And that question is so great when it's like,
if I'm asking that question to him and some direction
comes through the spirit of what that next step
is going to look like, that I acknowledge that
it came from him and that I do the thing that
he said. Like, yes, proceed with this. It's going
to be hard. You're going to have a hard time
doing this next thing, but I'll support you in
that. Absolutely. We grow, we grow in that way.
Even when we're asked to do hard things, if we've
involved him in some of that decision making
and allowing the spirit to say, that's the direction
we're going. I would say I've been able to do
hard things. I'm prepared to do hard things in
my life because I'm not planning on doing it
alone. I love that, Abby. So in closing. He says,
brothers and sisters, we've been given moral
agency. We can choose to harden our hearts or
we can choose to soften our hearts. In our daily
lives, we can choose to do the things that invite
the Lord's Spirit to come into and dwell in our
hearts. I know that in these choices, there is
peace and joy. Let us follow the example of our
Savior, Jesus Christ, who followed the will of
the Father. You guys, thanks for being here with
us. We wish you the best week ahead and hope
that you can do it with a soft and humble heart.
We'll catch you next time. We'll see you next
time.