And behold, I have given you the law and the commandments of my Father, that ye shall believe in me, and that ye shall repent of your sins, and come unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. What does it mean to have a "broken heart?" When I think of a broken heart, I think of someone who has lost it all, someone who's dreams are shattered, someone who can't make it on his or her own. Then I think of Jesus Christ, the Master Healer. I think of Christ taking someone's broken heart and mending it piece by piece, "one by one." (See Elder David A. Bednar and Paul Cardalls' song "One by One": https://www.lds.org/new-era/2016/07/one-by-one?lang=eng.) In the end, the heart is completely restored. No cracks, no missing pieces. Whole and perfect, as if the heart had never been broken. A broken heart is the sacrifice that Christ requires in place of the Mosaic requirement of animal sacrifices. "The shedding of blood in animal sacrifices was an outward ordinance intended to remind those involved of the future sacrifice of the Son of God and of the need for the believer to offer up at the same time an inward sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit... "The 'broken heart' spoken of in the scriptures is not the sorrow one feels because he has lost a close relative or loved one or suffered some other personal disappointment in life. Rather, the broken heart spoken of in the scriptures is the natural consequence of a person’s recognizing and admitting his own sins and imperfections (https://www.lds.org/manual/aaronic-priesthood-manual-2/lesson-19-a-broken-heart-and-a-contrite-spirit). A contrite spirit is a repentant spirit--a spirit willing to put off the natural man and become a Saint. For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. Only through the atonement of Jesus Christ can I have a "broken heart and a contrite spirit." To do so, I must yield to the Holy Ghost's promptings and run from the adversary's temptation. When I become like a little child, submitting my will, trust, faith, and hope to the Father.
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