A new heart.

Today as I was reading in Joseph Smith's history he relates the experience of Moroni's visit during the night. Moroni quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah and not being immediately able to recall it's content I diverted from Joseph's account and looked it up.

It talks of the second coming of Christ, describing the state of the earth at His coming.  I continued to read and then was stopped cold at the end of verse seven. "...and the lion shall eat straw like the ox." I pondered that for a minute and I realized that when the Lord, the Creator, came, He would change the very nature of the lion. We know everyone and everything will acknowledge Christ the Lord when He comes again. And every knee will bow, every tongue confess, He is the Lord. So as the lion gives his heart to the Lord, the Lord changes it!  No longer the carnivore- the lion now eats straw. No longer the predator- the lion no longer hunts and kills and eats his prey. The lion is harmless towards all others. I find that remarkable!  The Lord has the power to change the very nature of His creations. He can also change my nature, if I give Him my heart.

If I am willing to acknowledge Him as Master of my soul, and humbly give Him my heart, no matter it's condition, He will heal it, and make it new again. He will meet me wherever I am in my journey of life, and lift me to a better place by changing my nature, giving me a new heart. A heart that loves all people, a heart that knows and acts upon good, a heart that shuns evil in every form. A heart eager to learn more of Him and His restored gospel. A heart that is quick to forgive, deserving or not. A heart, through my own journey of pain, that can now lift and help others. A heart that can be an example of faith-filled endurance. A heart that can be filled with gifts of the Spirit. A heart that allows the Holy Ghost a place to dwell. Oh that I had such a heart! 

As this new year begins I marvel at the similarity of emotions we are surrounded with in our world today. As I read Joseph's description of the emotions surrounding him as a 14 year old boy, it is achingly familiar. The discord. The fiery conversations. The dividing of beliefs. And I already know the lengths others went to shut Joseph up. To extinguish the truths he shared. To halt the work of God. I draw courage and strength from knowing the results, to this day, of those efforts of the young Joseph Smith. Millions world-wide faithfully follow that obscure farm-boy's example in seeking Jesus Christ. In this season of unrest we are in, of voices calling 'truth here' and 'truth there' it can be very confusing to one such as I who is ignorant of the sciences, and other worldly knowledge- trying to know who is right. I learned at the beginning of the Pandemic the only places to confidently know I am hearing truth is from the Lord and His anointed apostles and Prophets. They know the truth and as long as my words and actions are in sync with them, then I have peace. 

And so I step forward into 2021 and work daily to give my heart to the Lord, to receive back my new, changed heart. I follow the counsel of our Church leaders on every level to the best of my ability. And I give gratitude to the Lord for the peace in my heart. It's the only way I can live. 

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  John 14:27