Several years ago, my teenage son told me he had never felt the Holy Ghost.
I was troubled because President Russell M. Nelson had recently said, “In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.”
How could I help my son gain this vital skill of recognizing how God speaks to him?
I decided to be more proactive in my efforts. I attempted to create environments and experiences where the Spirit could be present, and I identified promptings and spiritual feelings in front of my son, but nothing seemed to help. Until one day, when a simple shift in how our family talks about the Holy Ghost made all the difference.
We Changed One Word
One day, in frustration, my son asked, “Why do you say you feel the Spirit? I don’t ever feel anything.” He had been diagnosed with autism at a young age, but it never occurred to me that the reason he believed he’d never felt the Holy Ghost was because he hadn’t.
We discussed his experiences and discovered that when he prayed for answers or help, he received ideas, enlightenment, and understanding, but he hadn’t connected these instances to the Holy Ghost because we always used the word “feel” to describe spiritual inspiration.
“Feeling” is only one way the Spirit can communicate with us, but there are many more.
Preach My Gospel teaches ways other than feeling to recognize the promptings of the Spirit:
- Enlightens the mind (Alma 32:28; Doctrine and Covenants 6:14–15; 1 Corinthians 2:9–11)
- Replaces darkness with light (Alma 19:6)
- Teaches truth and brings it to remembrance (John 14:26)
- Guides and protects from deception (Doctrine and Covenants 45:57)
- Enhances skills and abilities (1 Nephi 1:1–3; Exodus 31:3–5)
- . . . and more
Because of this realization, my family has altered the way we talk about spiritual communication. Instead of saying we’ve “felt” the Holy Ghost, we now talk about how we’ve “experienced” the Holy Ghost. This simple shift has opened the door wide for personal exploration and understanding.
Experiencing the Spirit in New Ways
As I was making plans for a recent trip, my young daughter confessed her fear of sleeping at friends’ houses while my husband and I were away. Her older sister was expecting a baby and could not come and care for her as usual. We’d been over and over the list of people my daughter could stay with, but she remained unsettled.
That night, I overheard my daughter praying that we would find a way to help her feel less scared. As soon as she ended her prayer, I entered her room, sat on her bed, and hugged her while she cried. Suddenly, an idea popped into my mind. My son was out of the country on deployment at the time, and I didn’t know the exact date of his return, but the thought in my head said, “Call him.” As many times as I’d thought about who could watch my daughter while I was out of town, I had never thought about calling this son.
Remembering what my younger son had taught me about receiving promptings as thoughts and ideas, I decided to follow the prompting in my mind. I went immediately to my room, called my deployed son, and learned that he had received his orders that day. He would be home just in time to babysit his little sister.
I returned to my daughter’s room and told her the miraculous news. She cried again, but this time, with relief. We talked about how Heavenly Father heard her prayer and answered by giving an idea to me, her mother, which ended up being the solution she had asked for.
The Holy Ghost Will Aid Our Efforts
As a family, we’re continually learning how to better recognize the promptings, comfort, warnings, and blessings of the Holy Ghost. We each experience the Spirit in different ways. But whether the Holy Ghost tells us in our minds and in our hearts (see Doctrine and Covenants 8:2), speaks peace to our minds concerning the matter (see Doctrine and Covenants 6:23), or teaches us and brings things to our remembrance (see John 14:26), I find peace in the promise given at their confirmations, that my children “may always have his Spirit to be with them” (Moroni 4:3). They might not always recognize it—probably none of us do—but I know that as I follow my own spiritual promptings, the Holy Ghost will aid my efforts in helping my children learn to survive spiritually in these latter days.
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