Editor’s note: “The Spoken Word” is shared by Derrick Porter each Sunday during the weekly Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square broadcast. This will be given Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. This week is No. 5,067 of the broadcast.
Please note: Reservations are needed to attend “Music & the Spoken Word” in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Find out more about how to make reservations here.
The heart is one of the most important organs in the body. It keeps our blood circulating, ensuring that the entire body can function properly. As a result, we give great care to the condition of our hearts.
Similarly, we should give attentive care to the condition of our spiritual hearts. (See Proverbs 4:23; 23:7; Matthew 6:21; James 4:8; Alma 5:14; 12:10-11; Doctrine and Covenants 6:16.) When our spiritual hearts are healthy, everything else seems to operate more smoothly. We are kinder, more patient, more understanding. We judge less, serve more and love more easily.
Thankfully, it’s never too late to become spiritually “heart healthy,” regardless of what we’ve experienced. One of the beautiful realities of life is that we can change. Hard hearts can become soft. Impure hearts can become clean. Broken hearts can be healed.
But troubled hearts rarely change without effort. Luckily, opportunities to change abound. Each day brings experiences that test our hearts and allow us to choose how we will respond.
A story is told of a man who was bitten by a poisonous snake. He became angry and ran after the snake with a shovel, determined to kill it. He became so preoccupied with revenge that he neglected the poison in his own body and died.
We have the power to determine how we’ll respond to difficult experiences. Sometimes we feel poison in our hearts but as we strive to remove the poison, we can, with a clearer mind and a softer heart, see the best path forward to remedy the situation.
But we alone can never fully heal our own hearts. Only the Lord can. He said: “I will give you a new heart. … I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (see Ezekiel 36:26, New International Version).
As the book of Proverbs counsels, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (see Proverbs 4:23, New International Version).
As we guard our hearts — keeping them soft, humble and open — we become better able to recognize and receive God’s blessings in our lives. And through His blessings, our troubled hearts can be made new.
Tuning in …
The “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast is available on KSL-TV, KSL News Radio 1160AM/102.7FM, KSL.com, BYUtv, BYUradio, Dish and DirecTV, SiriusXM (Ch. 143), tabernaclechoir.org, youtube.com/TheTabernacleChoir and Amazon Alexa (must enable skill). The program is aired live on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time on these outlets. Look up broadcast information by state and city at musicandthespokenword.com/viewers-listeners/airing-schedules.
