Hank Smith: 00:00 Hello everyone. My name is Hank Smith and I’m the host of a podcast called followHIM. I’m here with my co-host John Bytheway. Hi, John.

John Bytheway: 00:09 Hi Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:10 We do a little a little what would you call this? A little snippet. A little clip of…

John Bytheway: 00:16 Yeah.

Hank Smith: 00:16 Called followHIM favorites, where we just pick out our favorite from this week’s lesson. We are in sections 58 and 59 this week, John. So tell us your followHIM Favorite.

John Bytheway: 00:26 You know, mine is very early in section 58. It’s verse three: “Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation”. So if you ever have that feeling, why am I going through this? Why is this happening to me? Why do I have to go through this? Why am I having this trial? Here’s your answer. Well, you can’t tell right now what’s gonna come hereafter. Then in verse four it says: “For after much tribulation come the blessings…” And I love this perspective. I think it’s in the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall be. There’s always a present reality followed by a wonderful future possibility. So just remember the word testimony starts with test. And the word question starts with a quest. And a quest can be a long search. A testimony can be a long test, but the good stuff comes later. So if you ever have that feeling, why am I going through this? This is a good verse for this. You can’t tell right now, but I’ve got something great planned for you, the Lord seems to be saying. That’s my favorite, section 58 verse three and four.

Hank Smith: 01:37 I love that. I tell you that right to Isaiah 55. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. You can’t see what I see. So you gotta trust me.

John Bytheway: 01:46 It’s a really good “trust Him” verse, isn’t it Hank?

Hank Smith: 01:48 Yep. Yeah. My followHIM Favorite is section 59 verse seven. This isn’t one of the Big 10 Commandments, so we’ll call this commandment 11. “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.” And I know that the Lord doesn’t need our gratitude. He’s not there saying, well, I need this, so give it to me. I think he’s commenting that gratitude and thankfulness blesses the person who expresses it and so he wants us to bless our own lives by expressing gratitude. In our house, we have a little phrase, I’ll be sitting with my family at dinner and I’ll say, how do you tell if someone’s smart? And all of a sudden, my kids will say, thank you, mom. Thank you mom. Because President Hinkley used to say the the habit of saying thank you is the mark of an educated person. And I just, I really like that. If you wanna bless your own life, if you’re thinking, ah, I’m just, I got nothing to do right now. How could I bless my own life? Express some gratitude. Shoot your mom a text that tells her thank you. Shoot your dad a text, a sibling, a friend. Tell ’em how grateful you are for them and why you love them. And not only will you bless their life, but you’re gonna bless your own life as well.

John Bytheway: 03:04 Awesome. Yeah. You’ve heard and I’ve heard somebody–one of the greatest compliments. What a gracious person. And that means they’re full of gratitude.

Hank Smith: 03:13 Yeah, absolutely. So we hope you’ll join us on our podcast. followHIM. You can find it wherever you get your podcast. But come back to Instagram and Facebook for followHIM favorites. We’ll see you there.