Open Our Hearts

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Another thing that I was impressed by on Nie Nie's blog is how she always has a spiritual link to some great talk she liked. So, I too would like more of that going on here, so I am going to try and post once a week(Sundays, anyone?)on something more spiritual in nature.

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The other day as I was rocking Elsie in her nursery, I was reading the last issue of the general conference talks in the Ensign. I popped it open to this one called Opening Our Hearts. I think that already my heart has been more sensitive lately simply due to having a newborn and other reasons- but the message touched me deeply.

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Elder Lund was speaking about how the Holy Ghost touches us. This segment especially:

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"Isn’t that something we all seek, brothers and sisters—to be visited by the Holy Ghost, to have the Lord draw closer to us, to find joy and consolation in our lives? If so, then carefully assessing the condition of our hearts is one of the most essential things we can do in this life.

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The heart is a tender place. It is sensitive to many influences, both positive and negative. It can be hurt by others. It can be deadened by sin. It can be softened by love. Early in our lives, we learn to guard our hearts. It is like we erect a fence around our hearts with a gate in it. No one can enter that gate unless we allow him or her to.

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In some cases the fence we erect around our hearts could be likened to a small picket fence with a Welcome sign on the gate. Other hearts have been so hurt or so deadened by sin that they have an eight-foot (2.5-m) chain-link fence topped with razor wire around them. The gate is padlocked and has a large No Trespassing sign on it.

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Let us apply the idea of a gateway to the heart to receiving personal revelation. Nephi taught, “When a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.”11 Elder David A. Bednar noted the use of the word unto: “Please notice how the power of the Spirit carries the message unto but not necessarily into the heart. . . . Ultimately, . . . the content of a message and the witness of the Holy Ghost penetrate into the heart only if a receiver allows them to enter.”12

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Why just unto the heart? Individual agency is so sacred that Heavenly Father will never force the human heart, even with all His infinite power. Man may try to do so, but God does not. To put it another way, God allows us to be the guardians, or the gatekeepers, of our own hearts.We must, of our own free will, open our hearts to the Spirit, for He will not force Himself upon us."

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Go and read the whole talk again because he continues on and talks about how setting our hearts up the things of the world brings pride, aspiring to worldly honors, and exercising unrighteous dominion over others when wealth is accumulated.

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It is something that I want to keep close to me because although we by no means are wealthy (and most likely never will be), I do like pretty things, as most of you know. But no matter how many nice "things" or whatever we have- I want to ALWAYS keep my heart open to the spirit. Humble to the tender promptings from a loving Heavenly Father who is waiting to bless me with peace in my heart as I seek it.

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"Be thou humble, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answers to thy prayers." (D&C 112:10)