Thomas S. Monson
"If man can invent sonar to warn against disaster, and if he can invent whiskers to put on automobile fenders for the protection of white sidewall tires, doesn't it sound reasonable that the Lord would place a warning device within His children, to warn us when we are on a detour, away from His pathway? I bear you my testimony today that we have a guiding light. It is foolproof if we will but use it. It is known, as you know and as I know, as the Holy Ghost-the still small voice." (BYU Speeches of the Year, Nov. 5, 1963, p.4)
Thomas S. Monson
"The same Lord who provided a Liahona for Lehi provides for you and for me today a rare and valuable gift to give direction to our lives, to mark the hazards to our safety, and to chart the way, even safe passage—not to a promised land, but to our heavenly home. The gift to which I refer is known as a patriarchal blessing. Every worthy member of the Church is entitled to receive such a precious and priceless personal treasure."(Live the Good Life, p.36 - 37.)
“As They Were Unfaithful They Did Not Prosper nor Progress in Their Journey”
The only story we get from Nephi which provides an example of this phenomenon is the one about their trials on the ship. Yet, here Benjamin says that they were smitten with famine and sore afflictions. Nephi doesn't go into any details about a specific famine on their journey. The bow breaking incident hardly qualifies as a famine. Therefore, we learn from Benjamin that the family of Lehi was punished with famine for their disobedience and faithlessness. Furthermore, they did not prosper nor progress in their journey because they could not get the Liahona to work. This must have happened on more than one occasion.
It will be remembered that it took Lehi's family eight years (1 Nephi 17:4-5) to get from Jerusalem to the southeastern tip of Arabia (the presumed location of Bountiful). Such a distance could easily be traveled in less than eight years. It seems that the family was punished with a longer journey because of their own disobedience. Although on a smaller scale, it seems that the family of Lehi had an experience in Arabia akin to the experience of the children of Israel wandering in Sinai. Remember when Lehi beheld the things which were written on the ball, he did fear and tremble exceedingly, and also my brethren and the sons of Ishmael and our wives (1 Nephi 16:27). We don't know what was written, but the news was not good. Note also the words of Alma as he spoke of Lehi's family,
'They were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey;
Therefore, they tarried in the wilderness, or did not travel a direct course, and were afflicted with hunger and thirst, because of their transgressions' (Alma 37:41-42).
The point is not to be critical of Lehi's family but to recognize the pattern—that obedience leads one in a straight course towards one's destination. As Alma said, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise (Alma 37:45). Disobedience only brings pain, sore afflictions, and unnecessary diversions in the journey of life.