Monday, April 18, 2011

Alma 12:13-14 -- On Unhardening

"Then if our hearts have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word, insomuch that it has not been found in us, then will our state be awful, for then we shall be condemned.
For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us and hide us from his presence."
Alma 12:13-14


I think it is so easy to become hardened sometimes. Seemingly tiny little things... not praying, or not reading your scriptures, or not acting on a prompting from the spirit... make it harder to pray or read or act in the future. We desensitize ourselves. If we don't go to church one week, then it's a lot harder to go the next week. It slowly makes it harder to listen... and us harder, inside. Harder to remember that we care, harder to listen to God, harder to even remember that He lives and that we love him. And if we take it to the extreme, we can forget we ever cared or ever loved... the most important parts of ourselves. ... And if we get like that, then eventually, like it says in the last verse, we would rather have a mountain fall on us rather than have to face God. Not that a mountain could hide us, but that seems like a pretty scary place to get to. Today, let's try to unharden ourselves... let's pray. Let's read. Let's act. Let's stay sensitive to the influence of the spirit, and listen to God, and build a relationship with him so that we'll never prefer a mountain falling on us... we'll never want to hide from him.

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