Prayer softens hearts. The contrasting theme of the soft heart and the hard heart pervades the Book of Mormon. We can effectively plot the graph of spirituality in the Book of Mormon by reference to the hardness or softness of the hearts of the people at any given time. At the upper reaches of the chart is Nephi, whose petitions to the Lord result in a softening of his heart and a strengthening of his faith. At the lower reaches are Laman and Lemuel, who, because their hearts are insensitive and impenetrable, are devoid of faith and understanding. Where on this chart of spirituality does our heart register? Where prayerful desire is the driving force of one’s life, the heart is softened and the mind is prepared to receive the blessings of the Lord.
The Lord reinforces this principle of the softened heart during His visit to the ancient Saints in America, the descendants of Lehi: “And 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” (3 Nephi 9:20). To bring before the Lord a softened heart is to demonstrate our deep and abiding love and respect for Him—our “fear of the Lord” as it is often stated in the scripture. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). Following the example of Nephi, let us seek to understand the things of the Lord.