Trust

Don't trust everything you see.

Even salt looks like sugar.

One of my favorite April Fools jokes used to be putting salt in the sugar bowl, at least it was until I got in trouble for it!  It wasn't near so much fun when my friends played that one on me.  I really like my sugar.  Darn, somethings just don't taste that same with salt!!  But I learned.  We really can't trust everything.  We can't find all the answers on the internet, or on TV, or even in books.  We live in a society where so many things are available to us at the touch of a button.  We can listen to music, watch movies, even learn a foreign language, all with the flick of the wrist. 

Life is amazing.  But you really can't believe everything you see and hear. 

If we could peek inside the devil's toolbox, I am certain we would see many things that are designed to lead us astray.  He is filled with deception and lies.  He works at taking those things from us that we hold most dear.  He attacks our families, our beliefs, and our values.  He introduces his own ideas and lies all around us. 

Satan leads us astray, not by the things we do so much as by getting us to believe the things that aren't true.  He overwhelms our senses with so much noise and distractions that we can't find the truth in the world around us.  He teaches us that truths are really falsehoods and that falsehoods are the "new" truth.  He teaches us that no one cares or loves us.  He teaches us that the sugar is salt.

We are bombarded with evil and wickedness.  It surrounds us.  It is part of our culture, part of our lives.  It is in everything we see and do.  It is hard to separate ourselves from it.  If we are not careful, it can even seem impossible.

That is why it is so important to follow the voice of the Spirit in our lives today.

President Faust said that following the voice of the Spirit requires patience in a world that demands instant gratification. It is quiet, peaceful, and subtle in a world enamored by that which is loud, incessant, fast-paced, garish, and crude. It requires us to be contemplative while our peers seek physical titillation. . . .
. . . This solution of listening to and following the Spirit may not be popular; it may not get us gain or worldly power. . . .
We must learn to ponder the things of the Spirit and to respond to its promptings. We must filter out the static generated by Satan.
Hearkening to the “voice of the living God” (D&C 50:1) will give us “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 59:23). . . .
I believe and testify that our spirits are special spirits and were reserved until this generation to stand strong against the evil winds that blow, and to stand straight and upright with the heavy burdens that will be placed on us. [Faust, “The Voice of the Spirit,” p. 10]

As we seek to stand strong, we need to be willing to listen to the still small voice as it seeks to guide us.  We have to recognize the deceit and find the peace that is promised.  We have to still the deafening noise and falsehoods.  We have to separate the sugar and the salt and find His truth.