http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/counsel-to-youth?lang=eng
This quote is very comforting to me:
The gift of the Holy Ghost, if you consent, will guide and protect you and even correct your actions. It is a spiritual voice that comes into the mind as a thought or a feeling put into your heart. The prophet Enos said, “The voice of the Lord came into my mind.” And the Lord told Oliver Cowdery, “Behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you.”
It is not expected that you go through life without making mistakes, but you will not make a major mistake without first being warned by the promptings of the Spirit. This promise applies to all members of the Church.
As I get older, I am better at recognizing the promptings I receive. Especially as I look back on my life, I can see times where I should have recognized promptings better and other times where I am so thankful that I did follow promptings. There have been a couple times where I feel so bad about something, that even though there is no logical explanation for my feeling- I can't do the said thing.
The big one that comes to mind is from my BYU years. It was summer and I had gone down to the Y to finish setting things up and I stopped by my apartment for the year. While I was there looking at it, one of the girls who was living there for summer term asked me if I would trade apartments with her for the fall, her fall apartment was just upstairs. I said sure, because the only roommate I would know was the one I was sharing my room with, and I figured she wouldn't care. On my drive home, I just had a terrible strong feeling that I should not live in the apartment upstairs. It was so strong that I knew that I should either live in the apartment I signed up for, or find a different place to live. I called the girl and told her I wouldn't trade and when it came time to move in, I was very nervous because I had not met any of the other girls yet and I was afraid they really liked that girl and would be sorry that I had taken her place.
It turned out that we all 6 of us got along great. We still get together periodically and keep in touch. My room roommate especially bonded with the other girls in our apartment and that just wouldn't have happened for either of us had we lived with the girls upstairs. That was also the year I met my husband. He came to our apartment because he heard it was the fun place to be and it was. He never ventured to that other apartment. The Lord really was watching out for me and now that I can look back, when I get that bad feeling I know it is the Holy Ghost warning me about something. Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what it is, depending on how strong it is, but the Holy Ghost truly acts in my life guiding me and helping me as I go along. I definitely get answers to my questions and prayers. It is such a profound blessing in my life.
I also loved this quote:
You may in time of trouble think that you are not worth saving because you have made mistakes, big or little, and you think you are now lost. That is never true! Only repentance can heal what hurts. But repentance can heal what hurts, no matter what it is.
We have a tendency to get down on ourselves when we are not perfect and I know people who feel they are too far gone to even try to take advantage of the atonement. I wish everybody knew what I know-- that God loves us and wants us back no matter what. His time was spent among sinners when He was on the earth, and it is never too late to come unto Him. He loves us and He will help us no matter how good or bad we are as long as we let him. He will take us from wherever we are and help us get better little by little- He won't make us do more than we can. He is perfect and He loves us.
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