Singing and Dancing Along the Way

During our auxiliary training last Saturday, our Stake President read from Alma 34:36: "...the Lord hath said he dwelleth not in unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell..." What I heard when he read that verse was a question about the state of my heart. Is it righteous? Do I make it a place where he can dwell?

I've been thinking a lot about the importance of my state of mind. Am I negative, critical, and pessimistic? or am I optimistic, hopeful, and complimentary? The Spirit is helping me recognize that truly "as a [wo]man thinketh, so is [s]he." As I am reviewing the Gen Conf talks, this truth seems to be taught in every message. Elder Christofferson said:

"Much of the work to be done in establishing Zion consists in our individual efforts to become "the pure in heart" (D&C 97:21)."

Speaking of the early pioneers Elder Packer said:

"If you can understand a people so long-suffering, so tolerant, so forgiving, so Christian after what they had suffered, you will have unlocked the key to what a Latter-day Saint is."

I think it's a battle between the natural man and the spiritual. And I know that if we work at it, our spiritual nature will triumph, because Pres. Monson said:

"In the private sanctuary of one's own conscience lies that spirit, that determination to cast off the old person and to measure up to the stature of true potential."

Our stake president pointed out that even when the handcart pioneers were in very adverse conditions, they still sang and danced along the way. When we choose to find joy in the journey rather than worry, murmur, and/or focus on the negative, we are following their example and we create a place in our hearts where he can and will dwell. What could be better than that?!