Tag Archive for: guidance

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.

Not Hidden, Just Unseen

Our walk along the West Highland Way was simply magnificent.
Reuniting as former missionaries of the Belgium Netherlands Mission, our walk had everything – beautiful scenery, amazing views, sun, rain, silly moments aplenty, great people, sheep galore, even a feral goat!
There was just one thing missing on our trip, spotting a Highland coo!
Tourist shops were bursting with Highland coos on every item imaginable, except the trail, where they were nowhere to be found.
Constantly, we kept our eyes peeled, scanning distant fields and searching for the elusive coo’s.
I recall debating whether a dark blob in the far-off field might be one.
But alas, nothing. No hairy beast. No curved horns. No majestic bovine presence.
It became a bit of a running joke: “Still no coos!”

Kilmahog!

Then, on the drive home, something nudged my memory: Kilmahog.
I’d been there some years before.
And sure enough, as we pulled into the car park, crowds of tourists were gathering.
Highland coo’s.
Large, calm, shaggy and very real.
And I thought: Isn’t that just like life?
In a similar manner, so many of us may be searching for something meaningful, truth, purpose, peace and direction in life.
Many scan the horizon, hoping to spot something that feels right, but never quite seem to find it.
But when someone knows where to look and gently points the way, in a fleeting moment, everything can change.
The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is like that.
It’s not hidden. It’s not exclusive. It’s available to all, but often people don’t know where to find it.
In Jeremiah 29:13 we read “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
Sometimes it just takes someone who knows the way, or remembers where the coos are, to point the rest of us in the right direction.
And that’s exactly what we as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do every day, point people in the right direction.
Who could you lovingly point in the right direction this week?