Spiritual Sunday: A Mighty Change of Heart

A few weeks ago, I was asked to give a talk at church about a "mighty change of heart." I debated whether or not I wanted to share it on here, and if so, if I would alter it.  I have decided to go ahead and post the talk I gave, as is.  For my non-LDS (Mormon) friends, there are both Biblical references and references from the Book of Mormon, so if you see a scripture quoted and you do not recognize the name of the book, it is likely from the Book of Mormon.


If you had known me 20 years ago, you would not recognize me today. While I was not into a lot bad things, I was a worldly girl who didn’t know anything different. I had many friends, some who had the potential to lead me down the wrong path. Fortunately, my freshman year of college, I became good friends with the girl who would later introduce me to the missionaries. I remember meeting the elders and I was blown away with what they were teaching me. I had looked for a church for several years, but none could ever answer my questions. I had begun to believe that there just was no religion on earth that made sense to me. Then, I had 2 young men in my living room answering my questions before I could even ask them. Because I already believed that there had to be prophets on the earth still today, it was easy for me to believe that Joseph Smith had been a prophet. Once I believed that, everything else had to be true as well. However, simply believing something is often not enough. There were still areas of my life where I had to have a mighty change of heart in order to live the gospel fully.

What is a mighty change of heart and how do we have one?
Just like our physical hearts, our spiritual hearts can also be weakened. Every time we sin, our spiritual heart becomes hardened and weaker. In order to repair our spiritual heart, we need to undergo a spiritual heart transplant. In Ezekiel 36:25-26, we read, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.“ This tells us that just as Heavenly Father can make us spiritually clean again, He can also perform a spiritual heart transplant for us. Through the Atonement of Christ, we have the opportunity to have our hardened hearts removed from us and replaced with a heart of flesh once again. We can find examples of Heavenly Father performing these heart transplants throughout the scriptures, particularly in the Book of Mormon. In Mosiah 5:2, after King Benjamin had taught his people, we read, “And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.” And again in Alma 5:7 we read, “Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word”
However, just as those in the Book of Mormon learned, if you do not take care of your new spiritual heart, it will begin to weaken again. Satan quickly begins to present temptations in an attempt to cause us to spiritually reject our new hearts.

How do we maintain a mighty change of heart?
Maintaining our new spiritual heart is a lifelong process which requires certain behaviors on our part. The first being:
- Prayer: We need to maintain our relationship with Heavenly Father on a regular basis. Many of us have to take medications every day to keep our physical bodies working the way they should or to keep us free from pain. Prayer does for our spiritual health what these medications do for our physical health. But sometimes medicine is not always enough.
- Sometimes we have to give up certain things, even things we enjoy. Just as a diabetic has to give up sugary treats, there are behaviors that we need to give up when we experience a mighty change of heart. If these behaviors are closely linked with certain friends, we need to let them know where we now stand and may have to give up some friendships. I chose to give up a very close friend after I was baptized because they would not respect the changes I had made in my life. In some ways it was difficult to lose this friend, but in many ways, it was very easy as I could see the bigger picture. However, even with giving up these things, temptations will still be placed before us.
- We need to constantly be on guard against temptation, especially our former weaknesses. When bulletproof glass is hit with a bullet, it will protect the person on the other side. However, the place that the bullet hits has become weakened. If it takes a few more hits in the same spot, the glass will give way. We are the same way and Satan knows this. The things that we used to succumb to are the very things he will tempt us with, knowing that they have already been a weak point for us in the past. At the very first sign of temptation, we need to remove ourselves from the situation and pray for strength. You may have heard that it is easy to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission, but anyone who has ever been through the repentance process will tell you that is not the case.
When we do give in to a temptation, it is essential that we repent of that transgression.
- Repentance: To truly repent, we not only need to take the steps of repentance: confessing, rectifying, asking for and receiving forgiveness, but we also need to forsake the sin. This does not mean simply changing our actions, but undergoing a mighty change of heart regarding this sin.

In a BYU devotional, Brent Webb said,
“Our desires come and go, often in relation to our environment, but character and personality are more permanent, more fundamental to the makeup of our soul. The change of heart we seek that accompanies true repentance actually brings a change of appetite for sin. Our likes and dislikes relative to good and evil are shaped by the Atonement. We learn not only to avoid the sin but the temptation to sin as well. There is no earthly entity that has this power to change our temperament. Wars are fought trying to bend people's wills and loyalties, but only the Savior can transform within us something so fundamental as our character and our appetites.
Those undergoing spiritual cleansing are softened in their interactions with others. They make better home and visiting teachers. They are less apt to be critical of those around them, looking for the good instead of the faults. They see and seize opportunities to serve more readily. They are more patient and less quick to anger. (I have noticed that when I am truly seeking spiritual health, I am able to be more restrained in what can be for me most un-Christian behavior--such as when I'm behind the wheel of my car in heavy traffic.) In short, the change of heart brings the Savior's hand into every facet of our lives "at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death" (Mosiah 18:9).”

Undergoing a mighty change of heart may be a onetime thing for many people. I know for myself it has not been. I have had to have several spiritual heart surgeries since joining the church, but once I have had a mighty change of heart, it is only when I fail to maintain it that I begin to feel the symptoms of my heart hardening again. It is when I am diligent with my personal prayers and scripture study that I find myself less likely to be tempted and if I am tempted, I have much more strength to walk away. I encourage all of you to nourish your spiritual hearts and to keep it strong.

More changes

I wanted to let you know about some changes that will be coming to my blog.  My blog has gotten away from me and I am finding that I am unable to blog about the things I truly enjoy.  I was trying to keep several blogs going and realized that I was in over my head.  I stopped posting on most of the other blogs completely and the two that I kept began to feel more like chores, than something I was enjoying.  I want my blog to be useful to others, but also help me as well.  Here are the changes I have planned:
     - I will no longer be posting to my homeschool blog, at least for a little while.  This means that I will be sharing more of our homeschool activities here.
     - I am planning to start a series on living a more organized life.  This is for those who may need to develop habits to help keep their homes clean and organized and/or for those who want to work on instilling habits in their children that will help keep the home clean and organized.  I will let you know now that these will mostly be very basic concepts, but ones that when practiced regularly will make a big difference.
     - I have also been inspired by the Frugal Girl's Food Waste Friday posts.  So, once I get a new camera, I will be posting our weekly food waste.  I find it to be a motivator to reduce our food waste if I am going to be accountable for showing what I am wasting.
     - There will be more pictures.  My digital camera is VERY old and while, it was cutting edge when we got it (10 years ago!!), it really does not take the quality of picture that I would want to post.  I am currently shopping for a new camera and once I get it, you will see more pictures. (On a side note- if you have any camera recommendations, please share them.)
     - I will still have reviews and giveaways, but they will not be the majority of the posts as they are now.  I am planning on posting more content on a more regular basis, so there will be tips, information, updates, recipes, and more intermingled with the reviews and giveaways.

I appreciate all of you for continuing to read The Happy Wife and I hope you will continue to read along as I try to bring this blog back to where it once was.

Another change

After thinking about it for quite a while, I am going to make this blog a little more personal. I will still include deals, reviews, giveaways and other fun stuff and I will still include helpful information, but I also want to let the real me show through. So this is the start of the getting to know me posts.

My name is Danielle and I was born and raised in Rochester, NY. My mom had me 3 months after she turned 16 so we kid of grew up together. She married my dad when I was 7 months old and they had 3 more children together (2 girls, 1 boy). When I was 20, my mom left home for a short time as she tried to find herself. She returned home a few weeks later pregnant with my youngest brother. My parents stayed together through the pregnancy and the baby is legally my father's (NY state law automatically assumes paternity to be that of the father unless otherwise stated). Unfortunately, my mother found she was still unable to deal with my father's mental illness (he is schizophrenic) and they did divorce about 10 years ago. With the exception of my 2st younger brother, all of my father live 5-20 minutes from me. My brother and his wife recently moved from Washington D.C. to State College, PA. Although, my husband and I have lived in several other states through the years, we are currently living in my home city where we bought our first house last April. We have 4 wonderful children Chloe, Yasmin, Janelle, and Cameron.

In the upcoming months, I will share more of my life, but this is my background. I would love to learn more about you as well. Feel free to share your background either in the comments below or by posting a link to a blog post that shares it.

A change

As I have been struggling to post more regularly, I realized why I am having a difficult time. My mind wanders at will. It does not like it when I try to tell it things like, "Today is Monday, we need to blog about money." In my heart, I am a very organized person, but my mind just refuses to cooperate. Therefore, I am doing away with the way I have blogged in the past by sticking to Money Monday, Try-It Tuesday, Wellness Wednesday, etc. I will still use those titles when I have something to post that is related to that day and title, but otherwise I will post at will. You will likely see more links to other things I find on the web and a little more about me and my life. I am also working toward having more giveaways for things other than free magazine subscriptions. Actually, I will have one coming up soon with a product review as well. Thank you for sticking with me through the recent inconsistencies and all. I appreciate all your support.