Noisy

Do you enjoy a good jabber or adding to some general clatter? Admittedly, I do.

A minivan full of teens, tweens and one mother---me---was cruising to a high school concert in a neighboring city. The backseat riders were singing while they played card games. Movie quotes unabashedly elbowed their way into conversations throughout the vehicle. Eventually someone's playlist was boomed over the speaker system in an effort to drown out the blaring backseat duet. Jovial was the general atmosphere.

Sitting in the middle row was our one visitor. Quiet by nature, he spoke only when asked a direct question, and the answer could only be heard with much shushing of the other occupants. Given, he may have said quite a bit more in the two and half hours we rode together, but I didn’t hear him over the rest of the hullabaloo.

Trying to converse with our visiting friend in a very loud minivan parallels trying to understand the still, small voice of the Holy Ghost while maneuvering through a loud, digital world. Focused effort and some pointed notification and device "shushing" is imperative!

Elder Boyd K. Packer once observed, "The first order issued by a commander mounting a military invasion is the jamming of the channels of communication of those he intends to conquer."

Life has shown that jamming of divine communication lines may be intrinsic as well as environmental.

Elaine S. Dalton taught, "If you can be dismayed, discouraged, distracted, delayed, or disqualified from being worthy to receive the guidance of the Holy Ghost or to enter the lord's holy temple, he [Satan] wins."

Now, the adversary may win an occasional internal scuffle, but we already know who wins the overall war. With our intentional efforts to keep communication lines open, our Savior can and will help us conquer in the daily battles against sin.

No noise, inside or out, can keep the Holy Ghost from directing a person with a broken heart, a contrite spirit, and a desire to be connected to their Savior and to their Heavenly Father.