Mighty Change In Your Heart

I enjoy very much the words of Alma the younger found in the Book of Mormon in Alma chapter 5. I've often read and pondered upon his words. Here I will share some of my favorite versus from this chapter.

First, verse 14:

"14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?"

Have you spiritually been born of God? This question is strongly linked to another question in this verse. Have you experienced this mighty change in your hearts? Every person who is spiritually born of God will experience a mighty change of heart. The change is so great that this person will have no more desire to do evil but to only do good continually.

It does not mean the person is perfect and will never make mistakes. It doesn't even mean that others observing their actions won't see actions that appear to be evil in nature.

I will use an example from my imperfect life to illustrate this point. I am divorced. My children's mom asks me for favors that I am not comfortable with because there are certain things about her and me that have not changed. One of those is that when we are together we end up arguing about one thing or another. It isn't that I want to argue but I have to say something when she tries to do something that I don't agree with. I am not trying to hurt her, not to do evil to her, although I quite likely am, and to an observer some of my decisions may seem cruel, vengeful, and evil. So, I tend to avoid talking with her and interacting with her because I believe it is best to avoid arguments.

One specific example is she asked if she could come over to my house on the 25th of December so that she can chat with our oldest son Willem via Skype. She says she does not have Internet at her place. I told her no because I know there will be arguments and/or she will say things about a lack of cleanliness in my house and try to engage me in conversations of how to raise our children. I am past wanting to hear her comments about things she does not approve of. In all my experience nothing I ever did was good enough for her. Our views on raising our children are diametrically different. And so I told her no because our children, and myself, and her don't need all of those problems. I do not deny her this chance out of malice nor with the intent to deprive her of the opportunity of talking with Willem. We only get two per year during his two year mission. People who don't know the entire situation might see me as being mean. I even suggested to her that she could go to McDonalds or somewhere else where free WiFi is available and use her lap top.

Because I know I have no desire to do evil to her or to anyone else for that matter that I have been born of God and have experienced a mighty change of heart.

The question in the middle of this verse is very interesting. Alma asks, Have ye received his image in your countenances? I believe that there are those that are observant enough that they can tell the difference between someone who has been born of God and those that have not. I am not one of those people, at least not that I know of. I have read stories and heard about people who said they could tell their was something different about a certain person. I believe what they notice is the image of God in the countenance of the person they observe to be different in a good way. I believe I have this countenance and because I do have it and have had it for a long time this is the reason people often remember my name when I don't remember them and this is also the reason I can easily befriend almost any child. The children can tell, always.

Then with verse 26 Alma asks another interesting question.

"26 And now behold, I say unto you my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?"

He asks can you feel this now. I think this question refers not only to the song of redeeming love but also about the change of heart. This tells me that this change of heart should remain with us always and also that this change of heart can be lost and so we must carefully ensure that we never lose this change of heart.