Heed and Diligence
“We consider that god has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from Heaven to the intellect.”1 One of the great and succinct declarations about coming to know God is found in Alma 9:3. Men and women come to God by giving “heed and diligence” or “obedience and diligence” to what God asks of them. “I cannot do that for you, nor can you do it for me. It is the sojourn of every individual. The mysteries of God are His hidden but simple truths. They set a man’s bones on fire. To pay heed to God requires that we not harden our hearts. When we have hard hearts we know less. Even what we once knew can be lost.”2 “How can you possibly remember the truth of all things? It’s because it resides within you, and you can access that by your heed and diligence. Those are the very words that are used to describe how it was that Christ overcame the world: by His heed and diligence. The more heed and diligence that you give to the commandments of God, the more the light within you grows. It’s already there. You’re just permitting it to invade the body of flesh and to inform you by triggering your memory.”3
1 TPJS, 51; DHC, 2:8; from “The Elders of the Church in Kirtland, to Their Brethren Abroad,” Jan. 22, 1834, published in The Evening and Morning Star, Feb. 1834, 135; WJS, 346; WWJ, 2:386.
2 “The Restoration’s Shattered Promises and Great Hope,” address given at Sunstone Symposium, Sandy, UT, July 28, 2018, transcript,
3 “Understanding Your Soul, Part Two,” March 6, 2021,” Highland, UT, transcript of talk, 5.