There are many places in the scriptures where the Lord talks about His sheep hearing His voice, such as John 10:3-4, "the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and lead them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice."
At the time of Christ and for centuries after, shepherds would have their sheep together in a field or pen, all mixed together. When it was time to lead the sheep away, the shepherds would call out to the sheep and the sheep belonging to that shepherd would gather and follow the shepherd. If you asked a shepherd to touch a sheep's face while blind folded, the shepherd could tell you who that sheep was. Christ knows us that well. Do we know his voice that well?
Leslie had half the room sing one hymn, and the other half of the room sing a different hymn. Then she had the piano play a third hymn. While all this lovely chaos was going on, she gave a spiritual thought. Not one woman heard a word she had to say. Most didn't even know she was speaking at all. Not that any of this distracting music was a bad influence on our lives. But too much is too much.
The Spirit does not shake or shout. We have to be quiet enough on the inside to hear him. Lynne Kuntz mentioned that when she doesn't listen, it is harder to hear the promptings later. But when she does listen then it gets easier and easier next time. We need to pray and ask Heavenly Father to teach us HOW the Holy Ghost speaks to us. We need to learn how to listen, and it takes practice.
We have all RECEIVED the gift of the Holy Ghost and that is step one. But then we must be able to RECOGNIZE the Holy Ghost. That requires faith to say, "I think that is it, I will follow it and see." As we LISTEN to Prophets, Apostles, and read good books, we will also learn to recognize the Holy Ghost. We need to have COURAGE to ask for the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Btu as with any blessing we ask for, we need to be prepared to receive the responsibility of that blessing and act on those promptings we have asked for. We must be READY to hear.
How do we get ourselves ready to hear? By putting ourselves in places to be able to hear. Being in the temple regularly is so important. But we need to quiet our lives to make a space for listening. We discussed this a lot. If our lives, or our children's lives, are so full of media and noise that there is no space for them to hear, then they cannot learn what it feels like to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. And isn't that exactly what the adversary wants. We have to carefully carve out quiet spaces, at least figuratively quiet. Family Home Evening. Family dinner time. Scripture study. Amber White said she plays hymns as her children come tumbling through the door after school. Her daughter flops down to rest, but doesn't turn on the TV anymore.
Amora Doxy talked about having the courage to say what we should say--that is acting on the Holy Ghost. Vicki Drummond mentioned having faith and trust to act--even if it is a smile in the hall. Leslie said that if she will take a moment to pray and read her scriptures when the kids first leave for school, she finds she is so much further ahead in getting what she needs to get done, even though she "lost" time taking a spiritual time out.
Then she told a story about not listening to a prompting. She wanted everyone to know that this is a process and we are always all learning, making mistakes, and moving forward.
She was in the grocery store with her daughter and she had to really hurry. She came up to the check out lanes and had a thought that she should go to lane 6. But lane 4 was much shorter and she thought, "That's crazy. I'll get out much faster over here. I know what I'm doing." She approached lane 4 and felt the feeling again. but again dismissed it. She became slightly uncomfortable, and almost turned around. She said, "I almost listened!" but by then her daughter had started to load the food onto the conveyor belt and she would have had to take the food off. Then the check out girl rang up an item, and she gave up.
As the girl was checking out her groceries she was complaining about how terrible she felt. She was sneezing and wiping her nose. She said she had not come in to work the day before because she was SO sick she couldn't get out of bed at all and she barely felt better now. Leslie was polite, but horrified inside. She got home and felt like she had to disinfect everything in her bags. This woman had handled her produce!! Sure enough, after a couple of days Leslie got very sick. I can attest that she was one miserable woman!
Leslie shared this story to emphasize that the Lord cares about the details of our lives. The whisperings of the Holy Ghost are not just for big spiritual manifestations. The Lord sends us promptings to show us He loves us and will help us in the details of our lives.
If you get a chance, listen to Allen Parson's "The Voice" Amora Doxy talked about how her father would play it around the campfire when she was a girl. It begins with conflicting melodies and dissonant chords and slowly falls into a quiet, beautiful melody. It encourages her to quiet her life. May we all quiet our lives and the lives of our families so that we can make room to hear the voice of the Lord.
