Pure of Heart

I recently watched a video about the story-telling trope of characters who are "Pure of Heart," and that got me thinking about whether people are or can be "pure" in real life.

Naturally, everyone starts pure. Newborns are completely innocent and morally unimpeachable. Yet, people can never stay pure. Life happens. People make decisions. Sooner or later, a bad choice will be made, and the person who made that decision will no longer be perfectly morally pure. Everybody sins. Nobody is perfect.

Yet, we can become perfect. Through the grace of God and the power of the Atonement, we can be cleansed of all our impurities and imperfections. We are not pure, but we can be purified. Our hearts are no longer pure, but they can be made pure again.

So, being pure of heart is a condition that we no longer have and cannot have now, but one that we can have in the future if we strive for it. No one reading this is pure of heart, but they used to be, and through diligent effort and the grace of God, they can be again.