Pondering

Doctrine & Covenants 88:62 And again, verily I say unto you, my friends. I leave these sayings with you to ponder in your hearts with this commandment which I give unto you...

As missionaries we read the word "ponder" a lot in the scriptures and it made me think. Pondering, to me, means that once I have heard or read something I think it through. I will keep those thoughts in my heart and mind and think about what it means and what I am supposed to learn from it. With every thing that we learn we can ponder on it and we do. If it is good and it is something we are supposed to be thinking about "Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. (Doctrine and Covenants 8:2)" If it is not good we will be able to tell by the opposite feelings.

So if we are going to ponder in our hearts something that means we probably need to be thinking about it a lot. That made me think about the things we think about. There is a scripture that says that our thoughts are going to lead to our actions and our actions are going to determine where we will be eternally.

What are we pondering on? Is it the latest television show where someone got shot or the music that was fun about destroying someones car and we cant get the lyrics quite right so we listen to it over and over? Is it the verse in the scriptures that keeps coming to our minds but we cant quite remember where it is, do we try to get it out of our minds by turning up the volume on our electronic devices or go to the scriptures and see what Heavenly Father is trying to tell us with that thought? Are we concentrating on what we can do to keep our covenants and help those around us or are we playing another game?

I know that as we try to ponder in our hearts the things of Heavenly Father we will be able to grow closer to him and know more fully what we need to do or change in order to return to Him. It is not always easy but it is always worth it.