“I suggest a simple solution for selecting the channel to which we attune ourselves: listen to and follow the voice of the Spirit. This is an ancient solution, even eternal, and may not be popular in a society that is always looking for something new. It requires patience in a world that demands instant gratification. This solution is quiet, peaceful, and subtle in a world enamored of that which is loud, incessant, fast paced, garish, and crude. This solution requires you to be contemplative while your peers seek physical titillation. (This may seem foolish in a time when it is not worth remembering much of the trivial tripe to which we are exposed.) This solution is one unified, consistent, age-old message in a world that quickly becomes bored in the absence of intensity, variety, and novelty. This solution requires us to walk by faith in a world governed by sight. With the eye of faith we are to see eternal, unseen, spiritual verities, while the masses of mankind depend solely on temporal things which can be known only through the physical senses.” (James E. Faust, “Voice of the Spirit,” Ensign, June 2006)
It is so easy in our world to become distracted, harried, even frustrated as we attempt to meet and fulfill our obligations all the while being inundated from every corner by the loud, incessantly annoying, distractions offered by society. As children of God, our purpose in mortality is to learn and grow, becoming balanced individuals who can then step into the next phase of eternity, having earned that right to progress even further. It’s rather simple, when you look at it that way. But we must take into account, Satan, his sorely misled one third and their effect on the citizens of this world, from the beginning of earthly time. They are the “hitch in our git along.”
It may seem a little lopsided that Satan and a full one third of the hosts of heaven are allowed to harangue us constantly, but it isn’t, because there are a full two thirds of the hosts of heaven left. I can’t begin to hazard a guess as to how many of Heavenly Father’s children are a part of this phase of mortality. But I do know two thirds are more than one third. I also know, while it seems that evil is winning the battle in this world, it is really but a small majority of the world’s inhabitants who are evil. They are the loudest! They are the most evil! They are, without question, trying to force the minority agenda on the majority. But we will win this battle for our souls, we really will.
President Faust’s suggestion to listen and follow the voice of the Spirit is good, very good. This is the compass our Father in Heaven has given us, along with the aid of ministering angels assigned to every human being, to aid us in returning home. He has given us a Savior who atoned for our sins and broke the bands of death. He has given us prophets and apostles to guide us through this mortal existence. He has given us scripture and wise theologians to evoke deeper thought in our hearts and minds. He has given man dominion over the entire world. The members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints must bring to fruition what President Hinckley said sixteen years ago:
“Beginning with you and me, there can be an entire people who, by the virtue of our lives in our homes, in our vocations, even in our amusements, can become as a city upon a hill to which men may look and learn, and an ensign to the nations from which the people of the earth may gather strength.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, “A City Set upon a Hill,” Tambuli, Nov. 1990, 8)
So let us become as a city upon a hill, with a quiet and ever steady voice, calling to the world to find peace within the hearts of her citizens. The minority will still be garishly loud, but let us stand as a solid counterpoint and path to eternal happiness. After all, isn’t that what we promised to do?