Half of my Heart

As you can guess from some of my past blogs, I am a huge music fan.  I always have a song playing in my head and continue to add more songs to my "mental playlist."  The song Half of my Heart, by John Mayer featuring Taylor Swift, has been a recent addition.  The song is about a man who can't seem to put his whole heart into anything.  The lyrics go:

Half of my heart's got a real good imagination
Half of my heart's got you
Half of my heart's got a right mind to tell you that
Half of my heart won't do

The heart is an interesting topic.  It's important to always keep our hearts in the right place, and to put our whole heart into things that we do.  When Christ was asked what the greatest commandment was, he responded with, "...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," (Matt. 22:37, emphasis added).  All of our heart is required.  If we go through life putting only half of our heart on the altar, we won't make it.

John Mayer put it well: "Half of [our] heart won't do."  In this life, there are dozens of decoys and distractions that drag us down the half hearted highway.  We must not let them get in the way of the strait and narrow path set by the Savior.  His way is the only way.  May we all more fully give our hearts to the Lord.  When we do, we will find ourselves on the whole hearted path to heaven.

Finding Happiness

I can remember my parents watching the news, and during commercials I'd switch it to Spongebob Squarepants.  When I was a kid, well I guess I haven't grown up yet, I never liked watching the news or anything of that nature.  To me, it was kind of boring.  But as I got older, it's grabbed my attention a couple of times.  I've realized there's more to life than just a talking, yellow, sponge that lives in a pineapple.

There is so much stuff going on around us today.  The world is changing so much everyday.  We see natural disasters, tragedies, and wars happening left and right.  Captain Moroni, a Book of Mormon War General, was constantly fending off his enemies and trying to keep peace in the land.  It was a time of much war and bloodshed and many of the people were mourning over their losses.  In the midst of all of this, it is written, "But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni..." (Alma 50:23). 

It's hard for me to understand that even amidst all of the wars and contentions that "there never was a happier time among the people."  How can that be?  What was making that time the happiest time?  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer.  No matter what's going on around, we can find happiness in our lives through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  As we truly live the principles of the Gospel, that happiness will only increase.  May we all makes these days the happiest in our lives.