I had to give a talk in Sacrament yesterday...and it ended up being just me and one youth speaker (plus a couple musical numbers--one of the other youth didn't show up and the other speaker had to work instead) but SCARY! Man, I was sweating looking at that clock with 25 minutes to go and my 15 minutes of prepared talk... I just made a conscious effort to read it very slowly, and that stretched it to 20 minutes. : ) Then thankfully, the bishop used the last 5 minutes to share his thoughts on the Christmas season.
I've had this hanging over my head for a couple months since I was asked all the way back in October! So between the talk and my father-in-law coming to visit over the weekend, it was kind of a stressful week. But it's over and we had a really great time with Papu (more to come on that).
Someone was interested in seeing the talk again so here it is:
Good morning brothers and sisters. (I added this yesterday ad lib, so just to be thorough: I dreamt last night that there were so many speakers that we ran out of time and I didn't have to speak. Obviously some dreams don't come true.)
My name is Carol. If you can believe it, we have lived in the ward for over 8 years now and this is the first time I have ever spoken in this ward! If any of you want to claim you've gone longer without speaking, raise your hands high so the bishopric can take notice. : )
George and I have such a great love of this ward. Although we've been here 8 years, I feel like I don't know many of you since I've been serving in Young Women for the last 3 years. George and I have 5 boys, ages 2 through 11.
I love to read, and one of the great stories of all time is of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
One of his knights was Sir Galahad, of whom it was said,
"His strength is as the strength of ten,
Because his heart is pure."
Being pure in heart is to have an inward strength that will carry us throughout the challenges of life and lead us to the goal each of us has to return to God. I was asked to speak today on being pure in heart.
Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount that "Blessed are all the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
In the story of King Arthur and the quest for the Holy Grail, it was only Galahad the Pure who was able to ultimately see the Holy Grail--none of the other knights were worthy. We too are knights in God's Kingdom here on earth and beyond. Only those who are pure in heart will have the privilege of seeing God, as Jesus taught.
I like the imagery of a knight in armor. We are taught to put on the armor of God in the scriptures, yet of what worth will all that armor be if inwardly we aren't pure? Without purity of heart, we won't have the strength to carry that armor and ward off the attacks of the adversary.
To be pure in heart is to have virtue. The word virtue comes from the Latin word "virtus" which means strength. Sis. Elaine S. Dalton, the Young Women General President, has long taught of the need to return to virtue and has spoken on the topic on many occasions. She said that another contemporary meaning of virtue is an "effective power or force; [especially] the power to heal or strengthen." We see this illustrated in the story of the woman who reached out to touch the Savior's garment as he passed in the streets of Jerusalem. He said, "I perceive that virtue is gone out of me." Sis Dalton says, "The kind of virtue to which he is referring is power, priesthood power, which always accompanies Latter-Day Saint men who are pure and practice 'virtue and holiness before [the Lord]' (D&C 38:24)".
Sis. Dalton was once running in a Thanksgiving day run and slipped on a patch of black ice in the road. She had broken her leg badly and lay helpless in the road when a car stopped and a man got out to help her. She asked him if he were a member of the church, and he said yes. She then asked if he could give her a priesthood blessing, and sadly, the man said he couldn't.
She later arrived at the hospital where her husband and 5 sons met her. She said, "As they encircled me and laid their hands on my head, I felt their purity, their power, and their strength." She counseled, "Young men, priesthood men, keep yourselves pure so that you may be able to use your priesthood power at a moment's notice."
Virtue is closely tied to chastity. To be pure in heart is to be chaste and modest.
In the words of Sis. Dalton, "one simply cannot be honest or possess integrity in the absence of sexual purity." In a CES Fireside, she taught, "We live in a world that is concerned about cleanliness and purity--the cleanliness of the air and the cleanliness of our environment, our water and even our food. In some places we legislate against pollution and even have government-funded environmental protection agencies to ensure that we are not made ill by contaminants that get into our air, our water, or our food supply. Yet society tolerates moral pollution in the form of pornography on billboards, television, and the Internet and in entertainment and other media. We tolerate filth that invades our minds through suggestive lyrics, music, and language. In some respects we are an organic generation ensuring purity and quality in our lives, and yet we are polluting our moral fiber."
Proverbs 23:7 says "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he". The purity of our hearts will be evident in our character and in our actions.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught, "There is an eternal law, ordained by God himself before the foundations of the world, that every man shall reap as he sows. If we think evil thoughts, our tongues will utter unclean sayings. If we speak words of wickedness, we shall end up doing the works of wickedness. If our minds are centered on the carnality and evil of the world, then worldliness and unrighteousness will seem to us to be the normal way of life. If we ponder things related to sexual immorality in our minds, we will soon think everybody is immoral and unclean and it will break down the barrier between us and the world. And so with every other unwholesome, unclean, impure, and ungodly course. And so it is that the Lord says he hates and esteems as an abomination, 'an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations…' (Prov. 6:18)
"On the other hand, if we are pondering in our hearts the things of righteousness, we shall become righteous. If virtue garnishes our thoughts unceasingly, our confidence shall wax strong in the presence of God and he in turn will rain down righteousness upon us. Truly as Jacob said, '…to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal.' (2 Ne. 9:39) And as Paul said, '…be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.' (Gal. 6:7-8)
The youth theme this year has been the 13th article of faith, which provides a great guide for each of us to keep our minds and hearts pure. It says:
"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul--We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."
The For the Strength of Youth pamphlet is another great guide for being pure in heart. In it are 17 standards that are applicable to all of us in our efforts to be pure in heart.
To be pure in heart is to be humble. A pure heart is not proud and stuffed up.
I've been reading an interesting book in which a scientist looked into the mindsets of people and how it affected their success in everything from relationships to business to sports. She broke these people down into 2 basic mindsets, which she calls the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. I think these might more appropriately be labeled the proud mindset and the humble, teachable mindset. Those in the fixed, or proud, mindset believed themselves to be smart or accomplished, yet they were afraid to do things which might cast a shadow on that smart or accomplished reputation…in other words, due to their pride, they were paralyzed by the fear of failure. Those in the growth, or humble, mindset instead used those moments of failure in their lives to learn from mistakes and increase their capabilities. They actually sought out challenges and rose to greater and greater success as a result.
This brought to mind the parable of the talents in which a lord gave talents to his servants, 5 to one servant, 2 to another, and 1 to the last, each according to his ability. When the lord later came back, the servants accounted for their use of the talents. The servant who had 5, gained 5 more talents, and the servant who had 2, gained 2 more talents. The last servant, fearing the lord, had buried his talent and was reprimanded by the lord for it.
Pride is a stumbling block which will steal away our potential and hinder us in our own personal journey toward eternal life. Only by humility will we be teachable enough to learn from our mistakes and purify our hearts. There is indeed strength in humility. In Helaman 3:35, we read, "Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God."
There is not only strength, but courage in a humble, pure heart.
To me, the crowning attribute of a pure heart is charity.
Moroni 7: 45-48 reads, "And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail--
"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."
I was interested to learn that the word pure in our New Testament is translated from the Greek word "katharos." There is a slight nuance of meaning to that Greek word which sheds further light on being pure in heart. Katharos was used to refer to refined metals such as gold, iron or silver--specifically about metals from which impurities have been removed. It also referred to clothes which have been cleaned or grain which had been separated from the chaff. Being pure in heart doesn't necessarily mean that your heart has never been spotted by sin…instead, through the gift of repentance, we have the opportunity to refine our hearts and remove those impurities. Being pure in heart is a lifelong pursuit as we draw on the sanctifying power of the atonement.
A few years ago in General Conference, Elder David A. Bednar said, "Let me suggest that hands are made clean through the process of putting off the natural man and by overcoming sin and the evil influences in our lives through the Savior's Atonement. Hearts are purified as we receive His strengthening power to do good and become better. All of our worthy desires and good works, as necessary as they are, can never produce clean hands and a pure heart. It is the Atonement of Jesus Christ that provides both a cleansing and redeeming power that helps us to overcome sin and a sanctifying and strengthening power that helps us to become better than we ever could by relying only upon our own strength. The infinite Atonement is for both the sinner and for the saint in each of us."
He continues, "Some who hear or read this message may think the spiritual progress I am describing is not attainable in their lives. We may believe these truths apply to others but not to us.
We will not attain a state of perfection in this life, but we can and should press forward with faith in Christ along the strait and narrow path and make steady progress toward our eternal destiny. The Lord's pattern for spiritual development is "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little" (2 Ne. 28:30) Small, steady, incremental spiritual improvements are the steps the Lord would have us take. Preparing to walk guiltless before God is one of the primary purposes of mortality and the pursuit of a lifetime; it does not result from sporadic spurts of intense spiritual activity."
There will come a time though as we do purify our hearts that we will abhor sin. Elder Spencer W. Kimball wrote in the Miracle of Forgiveness, "…An attitude which is basic to the sanctification we should all be seeking, and thus to the repentance which merits forgiveness. It is that the former transgressor must have reached a 'point of no return' to sin wherein there is not merely a renunciation but also a deep abhorrence of the sin--where the sin becomes most distasteful to him and where the desire or urge to sin is cleared out of his life.
"Surely this is what is meant, in part at least, by being pure in heart! And when we read in the Sermon on the Mount that the 'pure in heart' shall see God, it gives meaning to the Lord's statement, made through the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1832, that presently impure people can perfect themselves and become pure:
" 'Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.' (D&C 88:68)."
The Savior taught that the pure in heart shall see God. This teaching puts so simply what is in fact the greatest blessing that we each strive for--the gift of returning to God's presence in the Celestial Kingdom. It is no small thing. In section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon had a vision of the kingdoms of God. When describing those who attained the Terrestrial kingdom, in verse 77 and 79, we read, "These are they who receive of the presence of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father," and "These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus." What a great loss that is, to miss out on the blessing of being in the presence of the Father. Section 76 ends, "But great and marvelous are the works of the Lord, and the mysteries of his kingdom which he showed unto us, which surpass all understanding in glory, and in might and in dominion…they are only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him."
May each of us strive to be pure in heart, to be noble knights in the Kingdom of God, that we, like Sir Galahad in his quest for the Holy Grail, might achieve the great blessing promised by the Savior. May we have the courage and humility to repent that those impurities might be cleansed from our hearts.
Moroni said, "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ.
"And again, if ye by the grace of God are prefect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." (Moroni 10:32-33)
I bear you my testimony that I know these things are true. I am so grateful for the Savior's Atonement, by which I have the opportunity to cleanse my heart of the impurities in my life. I pray that I might live in such a way that my heart might be pure so that I might someday have the privilege of seeing God and living again in his presence together with my family. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
