Keeping Your Heart on Course

Clare and Candice reflect on the idea of “heart” in both a physical and spiritual sense. Through a personal story about Clare’s daughter Callie and her heart condition, they explore how small, often unseen issues can grow over time if left unaddressed. They connect this to spiritual health, discussing how small daily choices can either draw us closer to God or slowly shift us off course. With insights from scripture and President Nelson and Elder Uchtdorf, they share encouragement about course correcting with faith, effort, and trust in the Lord’s healing power. 

Pres. Nelson quote

Elder Uchtdorf lesson

Deut. 30:6

Transcript

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This podcast may include brief quotes from outside sources used for discussion, education, and commentary under fair use. These are shared respectfully, with context and attribution, and are not used for commercial gain. The views expressed are our own and based on personal experiences. We are not officially affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but we strive to share thoughtful, respectful, and faith-centered conversations.  

Transcript

candice: Welcome to Sisters Latter-day Voices. I'm Candace.

clare: And I'm Clare.

candice: Lately I've been thinking a lot about something that shows up often in the scriptures, and that is the idea of your heart. And I'm not talking just physically, but spiritually, of course. What it means to have a good heart.

It made me think because I was looking ahead at my lesson for Sunday School in a couple of weeks, and it was talking about hearts. I thought, oh, this will be perfect. And first, just physically, your heart.

And Callie, my youngest, she has Down syndrome. When she was born, I didn’t know her diagnosis and I didn’t know if anything else was wrong. On all of her ultrasounds, nothing showed up.

Anyway, she was born, and then a day later they said she needed to go to the PICU just to reevaluate everything. When they evaluated her again, they told me she needed to see a cardiologist because her PDA wasn’t closed.

I didn’t really know what that meant, so I looked it up. Your PDA in your heart is a small opening that helps blood flow in the womb, which is normal. It’s supposed to happen, but after the baby is born it usually closes on its own.

Callie’s didn’t close, so the blood wasn’t flowing the way it should. Over time it can put extra strain on the heart and eventually needs to be fixed, because if it stays open it can cause long-term damage when she’s older.

So she was seen by a cardiologist and we followed it. It didn’t need to be fixed right away, but when she was a little over a year old, we did get it fixed. And luckily medicine is amazing, it wasn’t open-heart surgery. They go in through a vein in a cath lab, which is amazing.

candice: It got me thinking that sometimes in our bodies, we don’t necessarily see or know if anything is wrong. Just like Callie, no one would really be able to tell. Maybe there was a small heart murmur, but otherwise you wouldn’t see it.

That’s very different from something like a cut that needs stitches. With my husband Darren, who has had so many stitches, it’s obvious when you can see blood or damage. You know something needs to be taken care of right away.

But with the heart, it’s more hidden and protected. You can’t always tell right away if something needs fixing.

That made me think of the scriptures in Deuteronomy. Moses keeps coming back to the heart and saying we need to love God with all our heart, not forget Him when life is good, and be careful of things that slowly pull our hearts away from Him.

That made me think of Callie’s heart. Her problem wasn’t loud or obvious, but over time it would have gotten worse if it wasn’t taken care of. Spiritually, the same thing can happen.

It’s not always one big decision that pulls us away, but small things over time. When I was little, I used to think of big obvious things, like don’t do drugs, one decision and that’s it. But the older I get, I realize it’s a lot of small decisions that add up over time.

Some of those small things can be distractions. Social media isn’t bad, but can it become bad or addictive? Yes. Other things like comparison, pride, or just things that make us comfortable but don’t necessarily bring us closer to our Heavenly Father.

candice: It reminds me of a conference talk Elder Uchtdorf gave a long time ago. He always uses airplane metaphors and talked about how pilots constantly make tiny course corrections. If they don’t, over time they can end up far off course.

We need to do the same thing, regularly checking in and making small corrections so we stay on course.

clare: Yeah, that goes perfectly with social media for me. I realized I was on it too much, so I set a timer on my phone for one hour a day and then it shuts off. Of course it’s easy to ignore it, but I’ve learned I don’t need more than an hour.

It’s different for everyone, but those small course corrections matter. Whatever it is you’re struggling with, social media or something bigger, or even just remembering scriptures or prayer, those little adjustments matter.

And in Deuteronomy 30:6 it talks about how the Lord will circumcise your heart, which basically means He can change and soften it and remove the things that make it hard. When I feel stuck, I know He’s the one who can help me change and heal.

It also reminds me of President Nelson. He was a world-renowned heart surgeon, and one of his famous teachings is that the Lord loves effort. He doesn’t ask us to be perfect. He knows we’re imperfect.

Our hearts can change, but it takes time. It’s little by little. What matters most is that we keep trying.

candice: Yeah, I like that. I think that’s great.

clare: All right. We hope you know that God loves you.

candice: Bye.