Hank Smith: 00:05 Hello, my friends. Welcome to FollowHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I’m here with my favorite friend, John Bytheway. Hello John Bytheway.

John Bytheway: 00:13 Thanks. Is that like a BFF or just FF, favorite friend? Yeah.

Hank Smith: 00:17 Yeah. You’re my favorite friend. Well, today, John, we are doing FollowHIM Favorites and you know how this works.

John Bytheway: 00:24 Right.

Hank Smith: 00:24 We take a question from this week’s lesson, and we answer that question. This comes from the book of Esther. When she is in real trouble, she calls on the Jews to fast for her, and I think a common question we might get from students or our own children is, “Dad, why do I fast?” So John, when your kids come to you and they say, “Dad, why do we fast?” What do you say? What do you tell them?

John Bytheway: 00:49 You know, fasting is one of those things where it’s a good opportunity to teach we have a body and we have a spirit, and that one of the purposes of life is to get our spirit to be in charge of our body. So, Jesus said things like, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Which one is stronger, the appetites that come with having a body, or is our spirit able to govern our body? And I feel like that’s one of the reasons that we have life. So usually, I try to explain it that way. Let’s see if we can have our spirit be in charge of our body for a while. That will teach us something about making our spirit stronger.

Hank Smith: 01:25 I think the Lord knows, John, that self-control is crucial to success.

John Bytheway: 01:30 Yeah.

Hank Smith: 01:30 If you want to have a successful life, and a happy life, and a happy marriage, and a happy being a parent, if you want to have all of those wonderful things that are given to us, you have to have self-control. And so fasting gives us an opportunity to practice self-control, practice overcoming temptation, like a safe mode where you can practice avoiding temptation and see what works for you. Sometimes I have to just stay completely out of the kitchen. That’s a good analogy for some sins, just stay away from them.

John Bytheway: 02:02 Yeah. What does Moroni say? “Touch not the evil gift.” It’s not, “Well, just hold the evil gift in moderation.” No, I said don’t even touch it. Don’t even go there. And that’s a good way to look at it, because I think if things weren’t tempting, they wouldn’t be tempting, right? So, all of us are going through life deliberately not doing things that maybe our flesh wants, because we trust the commandments and we trust God. But that makes us stronger, I like the way you put that.

Hank Smith: 02:31 I liked what you said with, who’s in control here? Is it the spirit or the body?

John Bytheway: 02:36 Are you the spirit or… Yeah.

Hank Smith: 02:37 The body’s not evil, but it comes with natural appetites and passions that need to be controlled. I know one of your favorite scriptures is bridle your passions.

John Bytheway: 02:47 I love that one because it doesn’t say kill your passions. They’re God given, but they have to be controlled.

Hank Smith: 02:53 Yep.

John Bytheway: 02:54 And I know that Elder Bruce Hafen has talked about that. It’s like we bridle a horse because it’s so powerful, but it’s really useful if it is controlled, and we learn to control our passion. Bridle all your passions comma, it’s not a period, and there’s a result that you may be filled with love. I mean, how positive and happy and hopeful is that? You bridle your passions so that you can be filled with love.

Hank Smith: 03:20 The body has a desire to eat. And if you can control that, it’s just practicing something that the body wants to do that you say, “No, I’m in charge here.” That verse you quoted reminds me of section 59 of the Doctrine Covenants where the Lord says, “That thy fasting may be perfect,” this is verse 13, “or in other words, that thy joy may be full.” So he’s saying that you’ll have more joy if you fast.

John Bytheway: 03:45 Fasting’s not easy for everybody. It’s not easy for me, but there are times when I really needed help and it was so much easier to focus on. And if I felt a tinge of hunger, all I had to do is remind myself, no I’m doing this because, so and so, my friend, my family member really needs some help right now. And that made it a lot easier. And so I guess the hard part sometimes is the routine Fast Sunday. But I think if we look around, was it Elder Eyring, President Eyring that said, if you figure that most of the people that you’re sitting around are going through something really difficult, you’ll be right most of the time. Like Esther said, “Do this for me.” We have someone that we’re asking the Lord to help through our fasting.

Hank Smith: 04:30 And this is similar to what we’ve been talking about with the Old Testament, bringing a sacrifice to the temple means I’m giving something up. I’m giving something that I would normally keep for myself. I’m giving it up to show the Lord as a sign, right, between me and you. And you might say, why do I have to give up food to do that? Well, an ancient Israelite could say the same thing. “Why do I have to give up my best animal to show the Lord that I care?” Well, that’s the way the Lord has said. That’s how you can show me, bring forth this animal and I will know what’s inside your heart. Well, the same way it is on Fast Sunday, bring forth your favorite, fill in the blank, your favorite food, give it away. In essence, we give it to the poor.

Hank Smith: 05:11 I have two more things, John, that I want to mention here. The Savior himself said, “Blessed are they, or happy are they, who hunger and thirst after righteousness.” And sometimes we don’t have the opportunity to be hungry because the moment we feel hunger, we satisfy that hunger. But for a full day, we get to feel hungry, and we know what then it needs to feel like to hunger after righteousness. To hunger after God. Sometimes I think the way I would go eat food should be the way I feel about going to read my scriptures, or going to the temple, where I really am longing for that, and I really want it. And there’s a pull, there’s something in me pulling me towards that. So that’s one, that you can learn to hunger and thirst after righteousness through fasting.

John Bytheway: 05:59 When I teach that beatitude, I just love to say why didn’t Jesus just say blessed are the righteous? And in one way, well, none of us are perfect, but I love the idea that he’s talking about the desire for righteousness. And what you just said, I don’t think ever in my life, Hank, I have gone, “You know, I don’t think I’ve had a thing to eat since Thursday. I just forgot to eat.”

Hank Smith: 06:22 Right.

John Bytheway: 06:23 But I think I have had times when I’ve forgotten to read the scriptures, when I wasn’t as diligent in my prayers for something. If I just forgot to eat for four or five days, if my spirit were my body, it would be pretty weak. I’d be dragging along. It’s so much healthier to give your spirit spiritual food every day. So I love the hunger and thirst angle of that. It helps me to think, I got to daily nourish my spirit, not just my body.

Hank Smith: 06:53 Very good. I think we can go through things in life sometimes and realize it’s not our soul hungering for spirituality, for a connection with God. We go through and we think why do I feel so down, right? Why do I feel so upset? Among other things, it can be that your soul is longing for that connection to God again, and you just don’t realize it. You don’t realize those are the soul’s hunger pains. Last, John, and this one’s absolutely crucial, if we try to understand the Savior and His Atonement, we realize that he wanted to put himself in our same position so he could know our infirmities, our weaknesses. That’s Alma chapter seven.

Hank Smith: 07:31 Well, in fasting, we get the opportunity to be like Him, in that we put ourselves in the position of someone who does not have food, someone who is poor, cannot afford food to eat. And when we put ourselves in their position, we start to realize what it’s like to be that way, and our soul wants to help. When I’m sitting there hungry on Fast Sunday, John, I think, oh, what about a child who feels this every day, because they don’t have enough to eat? And I’m ready to go and give. I’m ready to sacrifice, because I put myself in that position where I don’t think I would have that same desire had I not put myself there. Does that make sense?

John Bytheway: 08:09 Yeah, that’s beautifully put because I think that most of us, and maybe most of our listeners, I don’t want to paint everybody with the same brush, have never known a day of hunger unless they chose it by fasting. We have such a high standard of living. When we read the scriptures, we find we can go so quickly past the phrase, “And there was a famine in the land,” and not realize what that means. Am I going to live? Can I find anything to eat today? Every day was how do I survive today? And so I like that you put it that way. I’m learning what it’s like to really be hungry, and not know where my next meal is coming from.

Hank Smith: 08:51 And like the Savior in Alma 7, when you feel that, you’ll want to run to the aid of someone else.

John Bytheway: 08:57 To succor, right.

Hank Smith: 08:58 Yeah. To succor them and help them. I’m impressed with Esther that she knows that this is a way for a mountain to move, right? For the impossible to become the possible. We can re-up our commitment to fasting and saying I want to have that same connection to God.

John Bytheway: 09:17 Yeah. Well put. I’m glad it’s mentioned in there. She asked others to fast for her, it’s an interesting way of not just denying our spirit, as we’ve talked about, but thinking of others in need.

Hank Smith: 09:30 Yeah.

John Bytheway: 09:31 And for Esther, we could direct it at her. And for us sometimes when we begin our fast, we can pray and say, “Lord, I’m not just going hungry. I have a reason for doing this. Here’s who I’m thinking about and asking for help for them.”

Hank Smith: 09:46 There’s an element of unity there, too. We all want the same thing, and so we’re all going to fast together for the same purpose.

John Bytheway: 09:53 Yeah. Hank, if you said to me, “John, you forgot your money. I’m going to buy you a hamburger,” that would touch my heart. But if you said, “John, I fasted for you,” I would be like, “Whoa, Hank. That’s a lot.”

Hank Smith: 10:06 That’s a deeper level of friendship. Yeah.

John Bytheway: 10:09 Yeah. That’s a sacrifice on your part.

Hank Smith: 10:13 We hope this helped you as you go forward and fast, and we also want you to come join us on our full podcast. It’s called FollowHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts, and come back next week and join us for another FollowHIM Favorites.