A Sure Compass
Just before setting off on my walk along Scotland’s West Highland Way this May with my missionary friends, my brother Paul and his wife Gwen gave me a beautiful gift to mark my 60th birthday: a 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔, inscribed and deeply personal.
Oftentimes, I’ve carried it with me, not always for navigation, but for what it reminds me of: direction, intention, and trust in something steady.
One of my favourite activities as a facilitator involves asking groups, sometimes 10, 20, or even 100+ people, to stand, close their eyes, and point in the direction of north.
The results are always the same: arms point in every direction.
Some are confident, many are uncertain, and only a few ever get it right.
Then I pull out a compass and show them how quickly truth is revealed when you use the right tool.
I always gift them each a small compass to keep, a simple reminder that knowing where you’re going, starts with knowing what you’re using to guide you.
What tool do you use?
In a similar manner, I love the words of Marvin J. Ashton:
“…just as a compass is valuable to guide us out of the dense forest, so the gospel points the way as we walk the paths of life.”
There’s something insightful in that comparison.
I know that life can be full of dense forests: uncertainty, doubt, temptation, fear, distraction.
I also know that the gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t eliminate these things, yet it’s my experience that it helps us move through them without getting lost.
President James E. Faust once said: “The gift of the Holy Ghost is available as a sure guide, as the voice of conscience, and as a moral compass. This guiding compass is personal to each of us. It is unerring. It is unfailing.”
Not perfect circumstances. Not perfect knowledge. But a perfect guide.
I’ve learned that you don’t have to see the whole map if you trust your compass.
Whether you’re navigating the Highlands of Scotland or the hard questions of life, it’s the same principle.
The Spirit points true. The gospel holds steady. And I’ve kept walking.
60 years with the gospel as my guide. I still face storms, but I never face them alone.
As 2 Nephi 32:5 reminds us:
“For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.”
What are you using today to find your way, and is it pointing you to True North?
If you’d like to know more, speak to a member or a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
