Spiritual Thought: Two Witnesses

Confession. Sometimes we go to church and by the time we get home I couldn't tell you who spoke or taught, much less what they taught on. But I can tell you exactly how many pieces of paper and doorstops are in the hallway. And how many laps my kid did around the church. Guess who's counting days until nursery? Four months. I can do this...

But this past week, Easter Sunday, was a special treat. We took shifts with the baby so I got to actually pay attention to sacrament and relief society, both of which were exceptionally great this week.

The spiritual thought I wanted to share this week comes from our relief society lesson. It's out of the Joseph Fielding Smith manual, chapter 9.

We were talking about Moroni's promise in Chapter 10, v. 3:

"Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts."

Specifically, we discussed what it means to "ponder it in your hearts." One person said that "pondering" means that you kind of "marinate" the things you read, rather than just reading them and moving on. You let them stew a bit and develop. Someone else suggested that the word "heart" is critical because too often we seek after things with our intellect and ignore our heart.

But then one sister (our previous bishop's wife, who is kinda "Grams" for the whole ward) made a comment that I had never considered before and that's what I wanted to share with you today. She pointed to the law of witnesses that says “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” [2 Corinthians 13:1.] And then she said that both head and heart are necessary for our personal belief in truth. Our heart can be the first witness, but our head can be the second (or vice versa) and through the combination of these two we can establish our personal testimonies.

I'd love to attribute this photo... but I can't find the original source. Is it yours?

I loved this so much. I just sat there staring at her thinking... "how have I never thought of that before? That's awesome!" I've come to see how each person's testimony develops in a different way. Some people can let their heart lead and follow it. Others let logic be their guide. But I love the idea that both are crucial to our understanding and deepening knowledge of the Gospel.

So there's your five minute spiritual pick-me-up for the week. Trust your heart AND your head! (And Grams, you rock!)