This, 'Ponder this in your heart,' is a phrase that caught my attention when I turned to the Mormon Church to fulfill all of my dreams. The phrase tugged at my heartstrings telling me that God did have an interest in little ole me, that I was important to Him, and He did want to see me in the next life.
At first when I followed this admonition of pondering things in my heart I was pondering such things as wouldn't it be alright to study for my university exam on Sunday as I had been ill prior and really needed to cram. God would surely give a green light here, wouldn't he? He was a kind, loving and understanding God who used Commonsense sometimes.
Soon, the questions got harder, plus I started to think about this word ponder more. To me, it meant for me to ask questions and look for answers....any place. I could search any book I could find, I could ask my professors, look into scientific spheres, and then could think and reason about this information I found, and come up with a reasonable answer.
One of the books I turned to for some of the questions concerning the cult I was having was Fawn Brodie's, No Man Knows My History. The book was easy to read, had well-documented information, made sense to me, and I could not put it down. What a difference this was from trying to read the slow, mind-numbing Book of Mormon which was like a terrible child's book in comparison.
So I took to heart this pondering in your heart that I had learned at church only to find that there existed lots of caveats to the statement. To 'ponder' to the cult meant that you could only ask the questions they wanted you to ask, to look into the material they said was ok to read, and to talk only to the people in the cult they said you should talk to.
And, 'heart' meant your church heart. The only heart that counts in the cult.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2015 10:39PM by presleynfactsrock.
You've never pondered anything in your heart. Neither has anyone else. Your brain, yes. Your heart -- no.
See, some ancient cultures (the Hebrews among them), being ignorant of human physiology, thought that the heart was the source of thought and emotion. Perhaps they thought that because sometimes, when you experience strong emotions, your brain releases chemicals that increase your heart rate, making your chest feel a little tight and warm. But it's your brain doing that, affecting your heart -- which is just a pump for blood, not a thinking or emotional source. That ancient ignorant superstition about it being where you think or originate emotions was proven false hundreds of years ago.
Notice, though, that bible Jesus didn't know the superstition was wrong. Neither did the "apostles" of his time. Neither did Joseph Smith. Or every mormon "prophet" and apostle down the line. Despite the superstition being clearly and completely proven false, they still continue to use it. When the simple fact is, you *can't* ponder anything in your heart.
Heck, most of them don't even bother to try and argue that it's a metaphor (which it isn't, it's perpetuation of an ancient proven-false superstition). It's rather sad, but clear evidence that such people are stuck in proven-false, worthless superstition, and not sources of glorious, true information.
Ponder: think about (something) carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion. --from some dictionary.
True pondering is exactly what the church doesn't want you to do. The phrase "in your heart" is code for "use your feelings not your powers of reason."
In the Mormon church that phrase is also code for, "Keep thinking about it until you manage to align your thoughts with Mormon teachings."