Written in Your Hearts

Yesterday my youngest child—who is four years old—told her older sister (without any prompting from anyone) that Jesus was in her heart. That sister recounted this to me as we were getting home, and a little later in the evening that same youngest child came up to me and my wife and offered two of her favorite toys as gifts for someone else. My wife has been gathering gifts for a family in need for Christmas and so my daughter was really excited to give those as well to other children who didn’t have much. It wasn’t until this morning that I put those two things together: first she told of how Jesus was in her heart and then she had a desire to give her things to help others. It was a powerful example to me of how Jesus should change us to want to love and serve others, and I reflected upon this as I read King Benjamin’s final words to his people. He said, “I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives…. I would that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts, that ye are not found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, and also, the name by which he shall call you” (Mosiah 5:8, 12). We should strive to always have His name written on our hearts. We covenant each week as we partake of the sacrament that we will are willing to take His name upon us, and as we do that it becomes written in our heart. And I guess we will know that we have really have taken His name upon us when our heart then leads us to love and serve just like my little girl wanted to.

            Paul wrote to the Corinthians these words: “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward.” These converts of the gospel had opened up their hearts to the Savior and the Spirit of the Lord figuratively wrote upon them. Paul added in the same chapter that some of the Jews could not see Christ in the words of the Old Testament: “But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:2-4, 15-16). I really like these two analogies. Some have a “veil” over their heart in that they don’t let Christ in and cannot see Christ even in words that were meant to teach of Him. But others have opened up their hearts so that the Spirit can write upon them like the Lord did upon the tablets of Moses. We have to each decide whether we will cover our hearts with a veil so that the Savior cannot enter in, or whether we will open our hearts so that the Spirit of the Lord can write the name of Jesus Christ upon them. If we choose then latter then, like it was for my little girl, our actions will be motivated by the love for Jesus that dwells in our hearts.