My husband and I were flying on a plane when he turned a documentary on to watch on his tablet.
He asked if I wanted to share headphones with him to watch it together.
But I turned him down, telling him I was going to take a nap.
Well, I didn’t take a nap.
Instead, I kept watching the documentary out of the corner of my eye while only reading the captions on the screen.
The main person being interviewed looked like a big, tough guy.
(It was a sports documentary.)
I could just imagine what he sounded like as he spoke the words I was reading on the screen.
Finally, my husband insisted:
“You’re watching it anyways, just wear the headphones!”
As I slipped the headphones over my ears, I was shocked to learn that this man’s voice sounded nothing like what I had been imagining for the past 20 minutes with subtitles!
I had unknowingly built up a voice for this man without ever hearing him speak.
I was surprised when I discovered that wasn’t how he sounded at all.
Jesus taught:
“But behold, ye have both heard my voice, and seen me; and ye are my sheep, and ye are numbered among those whom the Father hath given me.” (3 Nephi 15:24)
In order to choose to be Jesus’ sheep, we can’t just guess what Jesus would say and do.
We can’t make good assumptions based on what we think a good person would do.
We need to KNOW His voice and KNOW His actions.
And in my experience, the best way to really get to know Jesus?
Dive into the scriptures.
Dive in with an open and humble heart to learn what Jesus would do.
And the Spirit can do its job to testify, confirm, and teach.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black