To Be Teachable

What does it mean to be teachable and how can we become so? Jesus Christ taught:

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matt 5:6).

If we desire to learn truth and righteousness we will be blessed with it. In the parable of the sower Christ said, "But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit..." (Matt 13:23).

Opening our hearts is necessary if we are to receive the word of God and one of the most important ways to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit is to humble ourselves. In the Book of Mormon a group of righteous people became teachable by yielding their hearts to the Lord:

"Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God" (Helaman 3:35).

As we have faith in Jesus Christ, pray, fast, and humble ourselves we will have joy and consolation. We will also be purified and sanctified which means being cleansed of our sins and saved from spiritual death, which was made possible only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Whether or not we are teachable is a choice we each make. It also takes sincere effort to do so because we are a fallen people.

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father" (Mosiah 3:19).

Our "natural man" is completely self-focused and full of pride, whereas being teachable means we choose to follow Christ and become selfless. As we recognize our own nothingness we will come to know God and serve others and in turn we will be blessed with the treasures of heaven. (See Matt 6:19-21.)