Most of the first principles and ordinances of the gospel require a certain amount of effort on our part. Faith requires action, repentance must be accompanied by true remorse and Godly sorrow, baptism is a covenant that we enter into and of which we accept a host of responsibilities and obligations. But the Holy Ghost is a gift. We can't earn it. We don't deserve it. And yet it is given to us anyways. How many times have we wandered off the path or done something stupid or spiteful or cruel and yet we are given the gift of warning, wisdom or remembrance of light and warmth on a cold, dark night? I know that in my own life there are too many times to count where I have felt the sweet presence of the Holy Ghost as an unlooked for gift. As Parley P Part has said, “The gift of the Holy Ghost...quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands, and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates, and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty of person, form, and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being.” What an amazing gift we have with the Holy Ghost! Wouldn't we want to have that gift with us all the time? I pray that we can always seek out those opportunities in our lives where we can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
