Recently, I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. I was assigned the topic of a Broken Heart and Contrite Spirit. I delivered this talk on May 25, 2008.
Introduction
My wife and I met in Spanish class. She came running down the hallway to introduce herself to me. I reciprocated by offering to help her with her paper (I felt she needed some help and I had some ulterior motives). Our teacher’s name was Bruce Lee. We were married in 1998, had our first, Emma in 2000, then Ben in 2002, Erick in 2004 and Camille in 2006.
In the summer of 1998, I picked up an extra job working in the Laundromat as a “mangler.” I sacrificed my time to earn the money to buy an engagement ring for Jill. I’m glad I sacrificed for her … she was and is worth it.
Sacrifice
In ancient times, the Lord commanded that Adam and his posterity offer sacrifices. Moses 5:5-8 teaches us about this. (Read the scripture and commentate)
I’m sure for them, it was indeed a sacrifice to offer up the fruits of their labors to the Lord much like it is for us as we pay our tithing today.
Joseph Smith taught us about sacrifice too. He said, “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation” (see Guide to the Scriptures Sacrifice).
The scriptures are full of examples of sacrifice, both of the Savior’s great sacrifice and of others’. We read of Abraham offering his son as a sacrifice and of the saints crossing the plains and building up the kingdom of God on the earth. One of my personal favorite examples is that of the brazen serpent that Moses raised in the wilderness for the children of Israel. They were bitten by fiery serpents. Moses provided a means for them to be healed. They had to get off their beds and looked up the brazen serpent. Those who made that small sacrifice were healed while those who did not died.
What Christ Taught of Sacrifice
Christ taught us what we are to sacrifice. He did away with burnt offerings and instructed us to sacrifice something different.
3 Nephi 9:20 teaches us what we are to offer as a sacrifice (broken heart and contrite spirit … read the scripture and commentate).
Definitions
The Guide to the Scriptures defines Broken Heart: “To have a broken heart is to be humble, contrite, repentant, and meek - that is, receptive to the will of God.”
To me, the idea of a broken heart is easy to understand. We all have had our hearts broken or we know someone whose heart has been broken. When we see others suffering, it breaks our heart. We are humbled and we have pain in our hearts.
Contrite is a little more subtle. I have never really known what contrite means. So I looked up the definition.
Contrite
1. caused by or showing sincere remorse
2. filled with a sense of guilt and the desire for atonement; penitent
3. filling regret and sorrow for one's sins or offenses; penitent
4. contritus, literally "worn out, ground to pieces"5. thoroughly bruised or broken
6. broken down with grief and penitence; deeply sorrowful for sin because it is displeasing to God
7. to rub down, to wear out, used until so common as to have lost novelty or interest, hackneyed, stale.
In this light, we understand that our spirits are to be worn out or ground to pieces.
We have all heard the story of the sculptor who after having finished his work of art saw that it had a crack in it. Knowing that it wasn’t perfect, he decided to start over. He broke it to pieces, grounded those to smaller pieces and the added water. Once he did that, the sculpture became clay again and he was able to re-make the work of art.
The gospel application is obvious. We are to break our hearts as he broke the sculpture. We are to have contrite or ground or worn out spirits as the sculpture is ground down. We are to be baptized as the hardened clay is softened by water.
How do we break our hearts and become contrite?
I see two ways in which our hearts are broken and our spirits become contrite.
One, we can lead a life of sin to the point that we are lost. We ended up having no where to turn but to God. Our hearts are truly broken and as a lost child, we submit to anyone who will help us find our way home.
The second way is to humble ourselves by striving to break our own hearts and being contrite.
The way to do this is to same list found on our list of Sunday School answers. We pray, we read the scriptures and meditate on them. We have gratitude in our hearts and express that gratitude in prayer. We serve others. As we do these basic things, we become more humble and willing to serve God. We begin to yield our hearts to God.
As Elder Maxwell taught us of discipleship, there really is only one thing that we truly posses that we can give to God and that is our will, our heart. (see Neal A. Maxwell, “Insights from My Life,” Ensign, Aug 2000, 7 where he says, “I am going to preach a hard doctrine to you now. The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. It is a hard doctrine, but it is true. The many other things we give to God, however nice that may be of us, are actually things He has already given us, and He has loaned them to us. But when we begin to submit ourselves by letting our wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him. And that hard doctrine lies at the center of discipleship. There is a part of us that is ultimately sovereign, the mind and heart, where we really do decide which way to go and what to do. And when we submit to His will, then we’ve really given Him the one final thing He asks of us. And the other things are not very, very important. It is the only possession we have that we can give, and there is no lessening of our agency as a result. Instead, what we see is a flowering of our talents and more and more surges of joy. Submission to Him is the only form of submission that is completely safe.”)
As we become more willing to give ourselves and our hearts to God, the more we become sanctified.
Helaman 3:35 describes this process as it happened to the Nephites and Lamanites (read and commentate).
End with your testimony.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Scriptures
D&C 56:17-18Wo unto you poor men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men’s goods, whose eyes are full of greediness, and who will not labor with your own hands!
But blessed are the poor who are pure in heart, whose hearts are broken, and whose spirits are contrite, for they shall see the kingdom of God coming in power and great glory unto their deliverance; for the fatness of the dearth shall be theirs.
3 Nephi 9:20And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.
Psalms 34:18
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Psalms 51:17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
2 Nephi 2:7Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.
2 Nephi 4:32May the gates of hell be shut continually before me, because my heart is broken and my spirit is contrite!
Helaman 8:15And as many as should look upon that serpent should alive, even so as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal.
3 Nephi 12:19And 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. Behold, ye have the commandments before you, and the law is fulfilled.
D&C 20:37And again, by way of commandment to the church concerning the manner of baptism—All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church.
Guide to the Scriptures
Broken heart - To have a broken heart is to be humble, contrite, repentant, and meek - that is, receptive to the will of God.
Contrite
1. caused by or showing sincere remorse
2. filled with a sense of guilt and the desire for atonement; penitent
3. filling regret and sorrow for one's sins or offenses; penitent
4. contritus, literally "worn out, ground to pieces"
5. thoroughly bruised or broken
6. broken down with grief and penitence; deeply sorrowful for sin because it is displeasing to God
7. to rub down, to wear out, used until so common as to have lost novelty or interest, hackneyed, stale.
Bruce D. Porter, “A Broken Heart and a Contrite Spirit,” Ensign, Nov 2007, 31–32
"When our hearts are broken, we are completely open to the Spirit of God and recognize our dependence on Him for all that we have and all that we are. The sacrifice so entailed is a sacrifice of pride in all its forms. Like malleable clay in the hands of a skilled potter, the brokenhearted can be molded and shaped in the hands of the Master."
"When we yield our hearts to the Lord, the attractions of the world simply lose their luster."
Object lesson: take come "soft" clay and some "hard" clay. Can hard clay be broken, ground down, added to some water and made malleable?
Gerald N. Lund, “Opening Our Hearts,” Ensign, May 2008, 32–34