Spiritual Promptings

When I was nineteen, I spent a lot of time wondering how to recognize the promptings of the Spirit. I thought, but how do I know if something I think or feel is just from me or if it is from God? One day during a religion class, I came across Moroni 7:13.

“But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.”

I realized at that moment that when I had an idea to do something good, I didn’t need to waste any time wondering whether that was Mimi’s idea or God’s idea or my mom’s idea. I only need to think about how to do it, and then do it. The end.

Was that actually the end?

Not really, and I don’t know if there ever will be an end. But at that moment, it was exactly what I needed to stop wondering and start doing.

I may not know the end, but I can tell you the beginning.

I believe that before we came to this earth, every single one of us was a spirit. We were in the presence of our Heavenly Parents and one another. While we were there, Jesus Christ offered to enable God’s plan by coming to the earth to live, die, and then live again as our Savior. 

Every single spirit that has been born on this earth comes with the Light of Christ inside, because of His sacrifice for us.

I return to the words of Mormon as recorded in chapter 7 verse 16 of Moroni:

“The Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for everything which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.”

This Light of Christ, or Spirit of Christ, exists in us all. Through its influence, we are lead to seek after truth and good. It helps us recognize the truth once we find it and guides us to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. It prepares us to receive the Holy Ghost.

After accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ and repenting and before receiving the Holy Ghost, there is an important step we must take.

Baptism is a covenant everyone is invited to make. In this covenant, or promise, we agree to take Jesus’s name upon us, to keep His commandments, and to serve Him to the end.  

Nephi taught about baptism in 2 Nephi chapter 31, verses 17 and 18.

“The gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost. And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost.”

These are God’s promises to us: to receive the Holy Ghost and eternal life. 

This moment of covenanting with God has two parts: baptism and confirmation. Men who hold the priesthood will place their hands on the person’s head and confirm that person a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and direct that person to “receive the Holy Ghost.” To receive.

I have had the opportunity this year to witness my daughter Alice’s baptism and to be present in the temple twice with my daughter Jill as she did proxy baptisms. After Alice’s baptism and after the proxy baptisms performed by Jill, all were followed by confirmations, along with the direction to receive the Holy Ghost.

From that moment of reception, the relationship that we cultivated with the Light of Christ inside us from our youngest years of memory guides us into a relationship with the Holy Ghost. From that point, we begin a friendship with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost can warn us, comfort us, and influence us. The more that we listen and respond to the Holy Ghost, the better we become at hearing the promptings of the Holy Ghost. We can make the Holy Ghost feel welcome in our lives by living in a way that allows us to hear and listen.

When my parents were visiting us here for Alice’s baptism, we spent a few hours at Centro Santa Fe. If you’ve already been there, then you know firsthand how incredibly large that mall is. My parents, children, and I were by the ice skating rink where some of my children were taking lessons. I needed to go to Chedraui. I left my kids with my parents and went off to find the store. Eventually I checked a map and discovered that I had walked much too far and was on the wrong level. I turned around and started heading toward the store when my mother was suddenly in front of me. I was incredulous—how could she have found me? I had gone past the mark and was not on the floor of the ice skating rink nor the grocery store. It was especially nerve-racking for me to find her there, because she did not have cell phone service while she was visiting, so if she had gotten lost in that five story mall, she would have been very lost indeed. I asked her how she found me, and she looked at me and replied, “Mimi, you’re my daughter. I will always find you.” She said she just listened to the Holy Ghost and walked. She didn’t search the map for the store where I said I would be or have any directions; she trusted the Holy Ghost more than the map and more than my word of where I said I would be, and the Holy Ghost was right.

My mother is a woman who has cultivated a relationship with the Holy Ghost. She lives her life in a way that invites the presence of the Holy Ghost, and she acts when she feels a prompting.

When I was in middle and high school, my mother was something of a collector of lost teenagers. She was known as someone who would let you sleep on her couch, someone who would feed you, and someone who would love and accept you no matter what your mistakes might have been. One day, she felt a prompting that she needed to find one of my brother's friends. She could have called his house phone. She could have said to herself: well, surely he’ll be in school right now. She could have driven her car to his neighborhood. But she didn’t. She listened to the prompting, and she walked to the main street, and she caught a bus. And then she rode that bus until eventually my brother's friend boarded that same bus. He was very surprised to see my mom. I don’t know if she had ever ridden a city bus in that town before. I don’t know what they talked about that day, but I do know that my mom felt she should find him, and she was told how to find him, and then she did find him. 

I have said that my mother is an example to me of someone who invites the Holy Ghost into her life. By that I mean that she strives to make her body and her home somewhere the Holy Ghost can dwell. She keeps her body clean by being careful about what she feeds it and what substances she allows in. She is cautious about what she reads and watches, so she can control what thoughts and ideas enter her mind. She keeps her home tidy and when conflicts arise with my dad or other family members, she acts a peacemaker, saying sorry when she’s at fault and accepting apologies when others have erred.

In 1 Corinthians 3:16, we read: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” In the book of Helaman, we learn about a time when the members of the Church began to choose iniquity and to disbelieve the prophets. In verse 24 of Helaman 4, we read: “the Spirit of the Lord did no more preserve them; yea, it had withdrawn from them because the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy temples.” From that, we learn that our bodies are temples, that we can have the Spirit of Christ inside of us, and that the Spirit will leave if we sin. There are, I have found, other reasons that can disconnect us from the Spirit.

When I was around twenty-five, someone I love left the Church. I remember having one of my friends ask me about this person, and I replied something like, "well, that person must have been sinning, because if you sin you can’t feel the Holy Ghost, and if that person hadn’t been sinning then the Holy Ghost would have been felt and that person would not have left the Church.” Around that same time, I stopped feeling the Holy Ghost.

This loss lasted months. I would pray and feel no comfort. I would read scriptures and feel no inspiration. I was dark inside, a fake. I kept doing what I had done my whole life to feel God’s love, and yet I never felt it. It was a difficult time for me. I don’t know why that happened, and since then I have had stretches of time where the same feelings have repeated themselves, but I do know that I have more empathy now. There are reasons that have nothing to do with sinning for why one might not feel the Holy Ghost. It could be depression, exhaustion, pain, or illness, for example. Our spirits are connected to physical bodies on this earth, and I think the physical can overpower the spiritual sometimes. 

What I have learned and what I now know is that it is just as important for me to read my scriptures, say my prayers, attend church, visit the temple, spend time with my family, repent, and forgive during the times when I am on spiritual highs as it is during the times when I am in spiritual slumps. The act of choosing the right even when there is no immediate reward of feeling good is a vitally important act of agency, and it keeps me on the correct path to feel the Holy Ghost’s reassuring warmth and promptings eventually.

When I was twenty-three, my grandmother and I went to the hospital on the same day, half a country apart from each other. I was in Utah, and I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant with Jill when I suddenly had severe pre-eclampsia and delivered Jill with the help of forceps and a lot of drugs. My body was in very bad shape. My grandmother was eighty-four years old, and her body was in very bad shape. She refused surgery and asked to go home with hospice care to give her mortal body a rest and return to heaven. Her children and many grandchildren gathered at her home in Indiana, and on Mother’s Day that year, my first Mother’s Day as a mother, my grandmother passed away. My body was still healing from high blood pressure and stitches, and I could not fly to her funeral despite knowing that she had wanted me, my sister, and one of my cousins to sing her favorite hymn. I felt sadness at losing her, guilt for not attending her funeral, and loneliness for not being there to comfort my mom and to receive comfort from all of my relatives at the funeral. A few months later, we moved, and an elderly woman whom I had never met passed away. Surprisingly I was asked to sing at her funeral. When I sang, I felt the Holy Ghost testify that my grandmother was still alive in spirit, that she loved me, and that she was listening to me sing right then. It was a strong, undeniable feeling. I am so grateful for those moments and for other impressions like that. Those memories are oases in the landscape of my life.

It is vitally important that we learn to recognize the influence of the Holy Ghost in our lives. When we feel the urge to act, and we then act upon it, we must remember to give credit where it is due—remember, all good things are inspired of God. When we have needed comfort, and we have felt it either welling up inside of us or being given by the actions or words of others, we should remember that both are from God. The Holy Ghost can help us feel comfort on our own, and the Holy Ghost can prompt the people in our lives to act in a way that will comfort us. All good things are inspired of God. When we have questions or doubts that we wrestle over and need answers to, we might suddenly hear the answer in our mind, or find the answer in our scripture reading, or learn the answer in General Conference or while talking to a friend. Whether by using others or not—all good things are inspired of God and that is the ultimate source. Give credit where it is due and recognize the Holy Ghost’s presence in your life. Cling to those buoys of memories, so you can withstand the storms that will inevitably come.

I testify that the Holy Ghost provides us with comfort, with instruction, with promptings on how to help others, and with confirmation of truth. I endeavor to live in a way that makes the Holy Ghost feel welcome in my home and my mind, which consists of choosing the right and repenting whenever I have chosen the wrong. I hope that all of you listen to the light of Christ inside of you and strive to receive the Holy Ghost in your lives. I close my words in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.