“One of the sneaky ploys of the adversary is to have us believe that unquestioning obedience to the principles and commandments of God is blind obedience. His goal is to have us believe that we should be following our own worldly ways and selfish ambitions. This he does by persuading us that ‘blindly’ following the prophets and obeying the commandments is not thinking for ourselves. He teaches that it is not intelligent to do something just because we are told to do so by a living prophet or by prophets who speak to us from the scriptures.

“Our unquestioning obedience to the Lord’s commandments is not blind obedience. President Boyd K. Packer in the April conference of 1983 taught us about this: ‘Latter-day Saints are not obedient because they are compelled to be obedient. They are obedient because they know certain spiritual truths and have decided, as an expression of their own individual agency, to obey the commandments of God. . . . We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see’.”
— Elder R. Conrad Schultz

This reminds me of a profound truth that became powerfully clear to me many years ago when I was a missionary in South Africa.  One of the lessons we taught was on keeping the commandments.  We told people, “It’s only when you are keeping the commandments that you can be truly happy.”  Once as I was teaching that principle to someone, those words burned deep into my heart and I had a strong spiritual witness that they were absolutely true.

Obedience has become a quest for me.  I know obedience to God’s laws brings lasting happiness and great joy.