![]() In this way a prophet-king fell from his exaltation (see D&C 132:39).ĭo all that you can to avoid pornography. Tempted by what he saw, he violated two of the Ten Commandments, beginning with “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). Though a spiritual giant in Israel, he allowed himself to look upon something he should not have viewed (see 2 Samuel 11). It takes courage.Ĭonsider the tragic example of King David. The sins of the world are numerous and ever present. It is not easy to keep our hands clean and our hearts pure. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? A Pure Heartįirst, we can ask ourselves, “Is my heart pure?” What can we do to strengthen our spiritual hearts? I would like to propose five questions for each of us to consider as we assess the health of our spiritual hearts. How is your heart doing? Spiritually speaking, is it beating regularly or is it skipping beats? Is it beating strongly or is it weak and thready? He understands our struggles and our strivings.īecause Heavenly Father knows my heart and He knows your heart, it is beneficial for each of us to take a close, honest look at our hearts. He knows our thoughts, feelings, and desires. God, our Heavenly Father, knows what is in our hearts. As Ammon taught the Lamanite king Lamoni about the nature and character of God, he explained that God “looketh down upon all the children of men and he knows all the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Alma 18:32). In the Book of Mormon we read of a great missionary named Ammon. The scriptures explain that David had “a beautiful countenance” and that “the Spirit of the Lord came upon ” (1 Samuel 16:12, 13). Young David, although not as physically impressive or accomplished as his older brothers, was chosen by the Lord to be king because of the state of his heart. for the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). As he looked over each of Jesse’s sons, the Lord taught Samuel, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature. In the Old Testament, following the spiritual fall of King Saul, Samuel the prophet was led to the house of Jesse in his search for Israel’s new king. It is the importance of our spiritual hearts that I wish to discuss today. It burns with faith and testimony, protects against sin, and gives strength and hope in times of trial. It prompts us to serve and to love each other as family members, friends, and neighbors. Our spiritual heart draws us closer to our Heavenly Father. Just as a reliable physical heart is needed to provide nourishment to our physical bodies, a reliable spiritual heart is needed to provide nourishment to our spirits. In addition to our physical heart, each of us has a spiritual heart. The heart’s valves open and close with perfect timing to ensure that blood moves the correct direction through the various heart chambers and blood vessels. The heart is the most heavily worked muscle in the body, pumping every day roughly 2,000 gallons of blood through the 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the body. It tirelessly beats every second of every hour of every day that we live. The heart beats on average seventy-five times each minute, 100,000 times each day, 40 million times each year. As I discover more about how the body works, I see the hand of God more clearly in its workings.Ĭonsider, for example, the beauty and complexity of the human heart. I feel the Spirit often as I learn and teach about the human body. It all happened before my eyes, in a dish, and without the need for a microscope. I would often watch a set of recently fertilized frog eggs split from a single cell into two, then into four, and then into eight. When I was a graduate student, one of my research projects was to study the proteins involved in cell division. ![]() It is remarkable to me to watch skin slowly repair itself following a scratch or to think about where and how memories are stored in the brain. I marvel every time I listen to a beating heart or watch an electrocardiogram measure a heart’s electrical activity. As an anatomy and neuroscience teacher, I have the great privilege to study and teach about one of God’s greatest creations: the human body.
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