By MELISSA ROBERTSON
Even if we do not understand or agree with what the Lord wants us to do, the Lord requires us to obey, said David McPherson, professor of audiology and speech therapy at Tuesday's Devotional.
'Truth, moral principles and God's commandments are constant,' McPherson said. 'Our obedience to these must be exacting.'
But people frequently do not follow God's commandments, he said. Saul, a king in the Old Testament, kept war booty the Lord had commanded him to destroy. As a result, Saul was rejected as king.
McPherson said there are many things that keep people from following the commandments. But if people use the Holy Ghost as a guide, they will know what to do.
'If we let the Spirit validate our thoughts, our actions and our emotions, they too will not become confused. It is our 'spiritual eyes' we must trust more than our desires,' he said.
McPherson demonstrated how people could make mistakes when they rely only on their natural senses by showing a video of a girl making various sounds --'fa', 'ba' and 'ga' -- and matching the video with the sound 'ba' from the speakers. Most members of the audience heard other sounds than 'ba', even when McPherson told them the only sound they would hear was 'ba'.
'Sometimes what we see is not what we hear, and what we hear is not what we see,' he said.
McPherson said another reason people do not obey the Lord is that sometimes people become so focused on what they want, they do not hear the Holy Ghost. He told a story of how he and a colleague were in a race to see who would pay for subway tickets for their group. McPherson took what he thought was a shortcut and met a person coming the other way, directly in front of him. His colleague followed him and also met a person in the same position in front of him. With further movement, they realized they were looking at a mirror, and the people they saw were their own images.
'Obedience and adherence to instructions were not as important as the cast member's emotional needs,' McPherson said. 'The picture was now useless -- costly in both time and money.'