Luke was watching a news basketball video. They were talking about Andre Drummond from the Pistons, and how he got two woman pregnant in one summer. This caught Luke’s attention. He decided he wanted to look it up. As he was typing it, he had a feeling he shouldn’t look it up. He argued with the Holy Ghost of why not, it’s just a one minute news clip. He continued typing and continued to feel the prompting to turn it off, he felt it was a warning, even though he couldn’t understand the warning, he chose to obey the prompting. While telling me the story, he was waiting for me to explain what I felt was the purpose of the prompting. I told him that it was most likely because there was something in the news clip that wasn’t good. Luke sat there for a second and then told me that he felt that the Lord was preparing him for a time when their WOULD be inappropriate content. He said, I felt that I needed to obey to practice my obedience so that I would be prepared to obey immediately when I really was in danger.
President Boyd K. Packer teaches that none of us “will ever make a serious mistake without first being warned by the promptings of the Holy Ghost.”
Can I be honest? My 13-year-old son taught me a true principle. One I know, but one that really sank in. For example, the word of wisdom is battled by the world because the health claims say that a glass of wine, one beer, and coffee are all good for your health. While I have developed my own testimony of the word of wisdom, and I have learned that the Lord knows more than the world, I have felt that the most important part of the word of wisdom is the obedience. If we practice obeying the simple things, then we will be prepared to obey all things, without question, and with exactness.
Growing up my dad tells a story of his father. Charles Edmund Conover and his brother Chester were two little 4-year-old children, who were taught to obey the call of their mother immediately. One day they were by the side of the house, playing, like they did every day, and their mother called from inside the house for them to come in. The two boys obeyed immediately. A few moments later a truck veered off the road and smashed into the house right where the two boys had just been playing. Had they not practiced listening and obeying their mother before that moment happened they wouldn’t have been prepared to respond immediately. Their obedience saved their life that day.
Often we don’t get to see the result of our obedience. It’s seldom that as we respond to the promptings that a truck will smash into the place which we once stood. However, obedience always results in blessings even if they are unseen.
These same two boys were saved by their father’s obedience to the Holy Ghost as well. Charles and Chester, were about fives years old, and they were playing outside, when they decided to take the donkey out for a ride. Their father felt something was wrong and immediately went looking for the boys and the donkey. He found the two boys leaning over a cliff shaking their fingers at something. As the father neared the edge of the cliff, he saw a mountain lion eating the donkey. After killing the mountain lion, he took his boys back home. No doubt teaching them through his instruction and action to always follow the Lord without hesitation.
“Obedience may mean to move quickly. It may mean to prepare. Or it may mean to wait in patience for further inspiration.” -Henry B. Eyring
As with Luke, today’s warnings are often different. We don’t likely have to fear a mountain lion attacking our children, but we do have to fear the subtle and ever aggressive attacks on the Internet. It is wise to teach them to follow always, even when they don’t understand. The Lord can foresee what’s coming, he is all-knowing, and knows Satan’s tactics. If we will allow ourselves to be tutored by the Holy Ghost through obedience, we will be able to avoid pitfalls that can injure us, both spiritually and physically.
“The Holy Ghost comforts, teaches, warns, enlightens, and inspires us. Nephi put it very simply: “If ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.” We need the help of the Holy Ghost if we are to make our way safely through what the Apostle Paul called the “perilous times” in which we now live.” -Gerald N. Lund
-Sherri Jorgensen
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