open heart experiment

i was asked by my relief society president (who happens to be my dear mother) to participate in a ward experiment. she told me that they had prayed about it and had asked a handful of women in our ward to agree to participate in the experiment that is discussed in Virginia H. Pearce's book, A Heart Like His: Making Space For God's Love in Your Life. i reluctantly agreed because i had heard about the book and knew that this was something that i really did need in my life and now had no excuse to make some changes. The truth hurts. if anyone has read this book and even better has done the experiment, i would love to hear from you. i am still in the process of my own experiment and pray that i will always be. to give you a brief description of the experiment it is to simply notice on a daily basis the condition of your heart and try to keep it open so that you can feel of God's love in your life and that those you meet and talk with in your daily lives will also be able to feel of God's love through you. part of the experiment is to share with others your discoveries. last night i took Connor to crystal palace to skate. what? anyhow, there was a girl there from connor's school that we saw right when we got there and i politely waved to her mother and told connor to say hi to the girl that was trying to get his attention. i thought nothing of it because i had seen this other mom dozens of times before dropping and picking her daughter up from school and have never had any conversation or introduction with her before. after skating for a while we went and got a soda and sat down at the table this mom was sitting at. this time i stuck out my hand and introduced myself and she did the same. we started with small talk but then i remembered the experiment and noticed that even though i was polite my heart was not very open. i decided that this was a perfect situation for me to simply open my heart towards this young mother. we talked for a half an hour about her life and she told me some personal things about herself and i found out that she is lds and feels that she has made some wrong choices in her life. i was able to just listen to her, not pass judgement or try to fix her problems, just listen with an open heart and not only did i feel love and compassion for her, i felt of God's love for both of us.