A soft heart

It's Valentines Week.  I have been working this month on having a 'soft heart'.   I read a book by Virginia Pearce several years ago.  Her message has stayed with me now for several years.  It had a true impact on me. 

I have noticed that when I become annoyed, impatient, or mad my heart is not soft.  My heart
feels hard, cold, far back in my chest. 
I am working on telling myself that I want a soft heart when I have negative feelings.

When I have served someone and feel love towards others, my heart feels soft, enlarged and
seems to move out of the dark cavity of my chest.

I can truly feel the difference in a physical way.  Love is a softening of the heart.  Pride is a hardening.

The word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul.

An open heart looks outward.   A closed heart looks inward.    I submit this challenge to you.
Try it!  You will notice a difference if you become aware of your heart.

Alma said, "I thank my great God that he has given us a portion of his Spirit to soften our hearts.  Alma 24:8

A great way to accomplish the turning of your heart is through prayer. 
Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ.  Moroni 7:48

An open heart is:

ENLARGED
SOFT
OPEN
WARM
CLOSE TO THE SURFACE OF THE CHEST WALL

--------------------------------

A Closed Heart Is:

SHRIVELED
SMALL
HARD
CLOSED
COLD
TUCKED AWAY DEEP INSIDE A PROTECTIVE WALL

Covered

It's February and it seems like this has been a long cold winter compared to the last few.
It's snowy the roads are icy and I seem to prefer to stay in my nice warm house with a blanket and a book :)

This morning I was studying the word atonement in my Hebrew/English Bible Lexicon and read that atonement comes from the Hebrew Kippur.  I remembered that from "Yom Kippur" - Day of Atonement.
But I read that the root for kippur is פַר kâphar a primitive root; to cover (specifically with bitumen);
Do you know what Bitumin is?   I didn't,  so i googled it of course.
Bitumen is a black, oily, viscous material that is a naturally-occurring organic byproduct of decomposed organic materials. Also known as asphalt or tar, bitumen was mixed with other materials throughout prehistory and throughout the world for use as a sealant, adhesive, building mortar, incense, and decorative application on pots, buildings, or human skin. The material was also useful in waterproofing canoes and other water transport, and in the mummification process toward the end of the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt.

The ark of bulrushes daubed with asphalt and pitch, in which the infant Moses was laid in Exodus 2:3, is called in the Hebrew תֵּבָה tebah, meaning "a chest". It is also the same word used for Noah's Ark. The bulrushes (Hebrew: גֹּ֫מֶא‎‎ gome) were likely to have been papyrus, daubed with bitumen and pitch (which probably refers to the sticky mud of the Nile). (excerpt from Wikipedia)

The ark containing the three-month-old baby, Moses, was placed in reeds by the river bank (presumably the Nile) to protect him from the Egyptian mandate to drown every male Hebrew child, and found by the daughter of Pharaoh.

Bitumin - is tar.   It's basically asphalt.   I know that come spring.  When the icy roads are clear again we will have quite a few pits and holes in our roads.   Thats how life is too.  We go through our darkest days and nights.  We feel quite beat up.  Full of pits.  (Life is the pits  :)
But they can all be covered again.     The covering of the atonement.  It smooths.  It heals.  It fills.