Voices

We played a game today in primary. A child was chosen and turned his/her back to the wall as the Primary President played a clip from a conference talk. Hearing the voice of the prophet or apostle, but not seeing, the child then guessed to whom the voice belonged. I was amazed at how many of the children guessed right. They have experience listening to a prophet's voice. I remembered a different time in my life when my friend was the YW president in an old city ward with a struggling youth program. One day, she mentioned something about one of the General Authorities. There was no name recognition. No face recognition, definitely no voice recognition. These young women had no idea who she was talking about and they were the regularly attending ones! Right then, she made a plan to change this. She knew the power and safety in following the prophet. She knew that her girls needed to know who to listen to, who to watch for, who to believe.

This world has so many voices. So many people willing to tell us a story offered as truth. How can we recognize actual truth unless we become experienced in listening to the prophet's voice?

In our primary class, we talked about the restoration of the Church. We worked on memorizing the sixth Article of Faith and got a bit hung up on some of the words. I threw out most of my lesson and talked, instead, about the basics of the restoration: how the priesthood is permission from Jesus to act in His name. I showed them a permission slip my son needs for a campout later this week. We talked about how Joseph Smith was given this priesthood, this permission, and that the same permission, the same priesthood is held by our leaders to allow us to make covenants, receive ordinances and blessings, to return Home. I want them to know safety. I want them to know which voices are safe to follow. I want them to have the benefit of priesthood power in their lives.

The world is a muddy place. So many voices. But God is a god of order. His message, His voice is always the same. He uses patterns so that we can recognize His message and distinguish it from the other voices seeking to distract us. He sends us people who are good and strong and safe to point the way to those messages, to help us to be in a position to receive light. In times of confusion, in times of darkness, we can return to the place where we last had light, where we last felt His Spirit to reconnect with how truth feels and to re-learn which voices are trustworthy. He is there. He waits with His light, with His love, with those servants who will always speak His truth.