Mosiah 13 - It's a Heart Thing

What do you suppose it means to have the commandments "written in your hearts" (Mosiah 13:11)?

I don't think it simply means memorizing them. I think it means they become part of who we are because they have led us to Christ.

Jeremiah's prophecy comes to mind:

"I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Jeremiah 31:33

The law moves from stone tablets to the human heart. Obedience becomes less about avoiding punishment and more about loving the Savior. How do we show the Savior we love Him? 

Can you know the law and still not understand it? Absolutely. I did.

I knew the commandments—or at least the "do's and don'ts." They nagged at me often enough. But were they written on my heart? Not yet.

Looking back, I realize I had never really studied them. My exposure came through Sunday School and later seminary, but I had never searched the scriptures for myself or, as Alma would later teach, experimented upon the word. (Alma 32:27) I knew about the commandments, but I didn't yet understand where they were meant to lead me. I hadn’t learned how to apply them to me. Most of my infractions were in my heart and mind rather than in outward actions. I simply hadn't recognized them for what they were.

What I never fully understood in my wandering years was that there was a way out of my darkness through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He paid an unthinkable price for my foolishness, yet somehow that central truth never settled into my heart. How did I miss the very center of the plan?

Was my heart hard? I don't think so. I simply hadn't learned. More accurately, I hadn't yet internalized my need for a Savior. 

I was such a good girl that I rarely thought I needed to ask Jesus for forgiveness. I don't say that with pride. I was well-behaved, but I wasn't yet converted.

That was my foolishness.

We all sin. Every day we fall short. Somewhere along the way, I must have concluded that if I wasn't breaking one of the "Big Ten," I didn't really need to repent. If I didn't think I needed repentance, then I didn't feel much urgency to understand the Redeemer.

I could follow that thread for hours.

To be honest, I don't remember much of what I was taught growing up. I remember sitting in Sunday School with the friends I had known all my life. One girl was always asking deep, complicated questions. She drove me crazy.

Now I realize why.

She wasn't the problem.

I simply didn't understand.

Today, I'm grateful that the Lord patiently teaches us line upon line. The scriptures and the words of living prophets continue to write His law upon our hearts as we live them. The commandments were never meant to be just a list of things to do or avoid. They are a pathway leading us to the One who can change our hearts.