Hank Smith: 00:00 Friends, welcome to followHIM. Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I’m the host of a podcast called followHIM. I’m here with my co-host John Bytheway. Welcome John.

John Bytheway: 00:09 Hi Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:11 And our guest this week is the wonderful Dr. Jed Woodworth. Welcome, Dr. Woodworth.

Dr. Jed Woodwor…: 00:17 Thank you.

Hank Smith: 00:17 Yep. We are excited to be here. What followHIM Favorites is, is kind of a really condensed version of our podcast, followHIM. So, some of you are like, just give me the CliffsNotes version. Well, this is it for you. The lesson this week is on sections 89, 90, 91, and 92 of the Doctrine and Covenants. And everyone here, the three of us, get to choose our favorite from that section. So, John, let’s let you go first. What’s your followHIM favorite this week?

John Bytheway: 00:48 Oh, it’s always a challenge, but I chose verse 24 from Section 90, which has some advice. Search diligently, pray, always, and listen to this phrase, be believing. You know, sometimes we want everything to be proven first, but have a believing heart, a believing disposition, be believing. And then this, and all things shall work together for your good. That phrase right there, I always, when I see all, when I see strong words, all or never, I ask my students, is that a high percentage? So all things. Math students, how many things is that? I’ve got in my margin, all things, even the hard, even the bad things, even the trials, all things shall–future tense–be patient, work together for your good. So a lot of our problems in life, we cause by dumb choices, some are just welcome to a fallen planet. Sometimes maybe there’s trials that we can’t explain, we don’t know.

  01:42 But the Lord can have a way of making those all work together for our good. And that gives us such faith in Him that really–is the Lord blessing me through this problem? Yeah. In the future that could make you a better friend, better able to counsel with somebody else, give you a bigger heart. And then it says, if there’s a big if right in the center of this verse, if ye walk uprightly, remember the covenant wherewith, ye have covenanted one with another. I mean, there is a lot to unpack in there. But I love this idea that we have a God who loves us, who is on our side, and that everything that happens to us will work together for our good. If we search diligently, pray always, and remember the covenants we’ve made with God and with one another, perhaps in our marriages and our families. That’s an application. So that’s my favorite verse Hank. There’s a lot in there and I love it.

Hank Smith: 02:35 I love it, John, because when I was first starting out as a scripture reader, I think, you know, in junior high I was looking for those verses. I didn’t know anything about background or context or anything, but I was looking for those verses that kind of gave me a shot in the arm–that’s a good thing–a “burst of goodness”, right? And that’s one of those verses that’s one of those “burst of goodness” verses that you could maybe memorize and keep with you.

John Bytheway: 03:02 It even explains the bad things. That God can take the bad things and make them for your good. He’ll find a way to help you for your benefit because he loves you, you know?

Hank Smith: 03:13 I love it. Alright I am going to look at section 89. Now, those of you who are not familiar with the Doctrine and Covenants, section 89 is a pretty famous verse. It’s where we get what we call today, the Word of Wisdom. And you probably know a little bit about the Word of Wisdom. Kind of a spiritual health code, right? Well, the Lord says this is a principle with a promise. Too often we look at the Word of Wisdom as a fence that keeps us away from fun. It’s not a fence from fun, it’s a principle with a promise. So you have to kind of change the way you view it. John, I think you talked about this once. Are the commandments fences? Are they guardrails? This is a guardrail. This will keep you. This Word of Wisdom will do exactly what it says.

  04:04 It will make it so you can run and not be weary, walk and not faint. So I hope that you’ll trust the Lord on this and say, you know what? I’m gonna live the Word of Wisdom. Maybe, I don’t know exactly why right now, but I’m going to because I trust the Lord and I’m gonna move forward. Even if my friends invite me to, you know, go drink with them I’m not gonna do it. I’m going to to stick to the Word of Wisdom, believing as John said from Section 90 that it’s gonna work out. It’s going to, what did you say, John?

John Bytheway: 04:38 All things work together for good.

Hank Smith: 04:40 It’s going to work together for my good. And I probably would say this, there are a few commandments that when I was a teenager, I maybe didn’t quite understand. But now looking back, I am thanking heaven that I lived, yeah. That I lived this principle. And the Word of Wisdom is one of those. Maybe I didn’t understand it at the time but oh, the problems–looking back, the problems that I was saved from…

John Bytheway: 05:08 Yeah.

Hank Smith: 05:09 …are huge. Dr. Woodworth, we’re gonna give the last word to you. What’s your followHIM Favorite?

Dr. Jed Woodwor…: 05:15 So, I would like to just follow up on one of the verses you just quoted. Verse 20, and shall run and not be weary and shall walk and not faint. What is that? My friends, if not energy. You have energy to run and not be weary, and you have energy to walk and not faint. So, who among us doesn’t want energy, right? And the Lord–we want energy to do all sorts of things that we love doing. You can look at this as a way of saying how do we gain energy to do the things we love? Well, we’re to avoid strong drinks, we’re to avoid hot drinks, which the prophets have defined as as coffee and tea, any kinds of coffee and tea, except for herbal tea, which has no addictive chemicals in it. The Lord says that he loves wholesome herbs in verse 10.

  06:10 And you can expand herbs. Herbs doesn’t just mean thyme, rosemary, sage and so on, but it means any leafy greens will give you energy. The Lord says, use meat sparingly in verse 12. And then over in verse 16, wonderful verse, he says, all grain is good for the food of man, and also the fruit of the vine. So if you want energy, use grain and fruit. So fruit, leafy greens, and grain are good. But I would just enjoin you to, as Brother Smith said, just now, trust the Lord. Take his word, test him and see if that’s true. If you eat in that way and you avoid the things that the Lord says are not good for you, will you have more energy? My testimony is that that is true and that will happen.

Hank Smith: 07:06 Maybe we could do a, a commercial, you know, for the Word of Wisdom, as in, you know, if you really want energy, get rid of the energy drink. Right? Energy doesn’t come in a can. It comes in living these principles. That’s an awesome one. I I really love that. I’m gonna have to be a little bit more careful. But I do love this idea of test the Lord, test the Lord.

John Bytheway: 07:32 Hank I want to go back because I want to make sure people know that that wasn’t my idea. Fence or a guardrail. That was President Boyd K. Packer. And it’s so beautifully put for something like this, or for any of the standards, that rather than a fence around, he said–this was about law of chastity–a fence around love that says keep out. Instead, it was a highway to love and to happiness, or in this case to good health with guardrails securely in place. Such a great way to look at the standards. It’s not a fence around something that says keep out. It’s the highway to it that with guardrails that says, be safe and arrive safely.

Hank Smith: 08:07 Very good, very good. Yeah. Commandments don’t keep you from happiness. Commandments are the key.

John Bytheway: 08:12 They’re the highway to happiness. They’re the key to happiness. That’s right.

Hank Smith: 08:14 Well, we’re grateful for Dr. Woodworth for being here with us, and we hope that you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. But if not, come back next week for another followHIM Favorite.