{"id":1672,"date":"2008-11-19T13:29:47","date_gmt":"2008-11-19T20:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?p=1672"},"modified":"2009-02-15T16:02:57","modified_gmt":"2009-02-15T23:02:57","slug":"broken-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2008\/11\/19\/broken-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Broken heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for any significant amount of time, you will likely come across the phrase “broken heart and contrite spirit”. The scripture most commonly used regarding this phrase is 3 Ne 9:20:<\/p>\n

Ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But what does “a broken heart’ mean?<\/p>\n

The popular usage of the phrase is summed up on Wikipedia<\/a>: a common metaphor used to describe the intense emotional pain or suffering one feels after losing a loved one. I am leery of the idea that this is what Jesus meant, that we wouldn’t be baptised by fire unless we lose a loved one.<\/p>\n

So what does it mean then? Consider these two facets of farming.<\/p>\n

“Breaking a horse” is common phrase. Wild horses do not let persons ride themselves. They need to be trained to accept riders. Thus a broken horse accepts its master.<\/p>\n

“Breaking the ground” is another phrase referring to the entire practise of tilling, ploughing, and harrowing. Basically, it’s what a farmer does to prepare the soil for planting. Thus broken ground accepts planted seeds.<\/p>\n

I wonder then if using these two examples, we can define a broken heart as a heart that accepts its master (as in Jesus) and the gospel seed (see Alma 32).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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