Hank Smith: 00:02 Hello, my friends. Welcome to another followHIM Favorites. My name’s Hank Smith. I’m here with the awesome John Bytheway. Welcome, John.

John Bytheway: 00:09 Hi, Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:10 We are going to answer a single question from this week’s lesson, John, just like we normally do. Here’s the question. For 1 Corinthians 1-7. How can I create more unity in my home? The name of the lesson is Be Perfectly Joined Together. Yet sometimes, I don’t know if your house is like mine, we’re not so perfectly joined together. So how can I create more unity at home? What would you say to that?

John Bytheway: 00:34 I tried to speak to this topic years ago, and at first I thought of a recipe. You’re flour, you’re sugar, you’re cake mix, but if you’re a handful of mud it ruins the whole cake, right? Then, I remember thinking maybe a better one is, you know how a tandem bicycle has two people, and maybe when you add kids you get more seats. The point is though, whatever you do, it affects everybody. If you are putting on the brakes while others are trying to pedal, it affects everybody. Sometimes somebody’s sick and we all pedal for them and it can be so wonderful that somebody can take over when we do that, but we can either coast, we can pedal, or we can put on the brakes, but it affects everybody. So, we can ask, what kind of family member am I, and how am I affecting my family? Am I helping us get to our destination with no empty chairs?

Hank Smith: 01:24 That’s awesome. You’ve heard me quote the Bible Dictionary before. Under miracles, it says they are the natural result of the Messiah’s presence.

John Bytheway: 01:32 Love it.

Hank Smith: 01:33 I love it. Then I ask, what’s the natural result of my presence? When I get home, what naturally happens to the people?

John Bytheway: 01:42 Oh, no. Dad’s home.

Hank Smith: 01:44 Right. Yeah. Do they scatter? Are they excited? I’ve used this analogy before with youth in their families. The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are made of the same water. The Sea of Galilee, though, is beautiful and lush with life, and the Dead Sea is dead. Why? One writer said it’s because the Sea of Galilee gets but also gives. It gets and gives. It gets and gives. While the Dead Sea only takes. It takes and it keeps.

  02:15 What kind of family member then are you? Are you a Sea of Galilee? You obviously have to take, everyone has to take, but do you give as well? Do you give to your siblings? Do you give to your parents? Do you give your time and effort and energy and enthusiasm to them, not just take their enthusiasm and energy? Or are we just a taker? That little thought has helped me try to give more in my family to create that life.

John Bytheway: 02:42 If you don’t give, you just get too salty.

Hank Smith: 02:46 Yeah, you get too salty. But everyone can still float in you, but that’s about it.

John Bytheway: 02:50 Yeah.

Hank Smith: 02:51 John, I remember at BYU where I work, there was some paths across the grass that students would cut through. Not take the sidewalk, they’d just cut onto the grass. The grass after thousands of students would die on that spot. So, BYU started putting up some signs. They said, “I’m trying hard to grow, so please don’t walk on me.” For some reason, it appealed to the students, like, “Oh, I don’t want to hurt you, little grass.” But when they were done with that, I was like, “Can I have one of those?” And I brought it home. We used it for family home evening. Because everyone in our family is trying hard to grow, so please don’t walk on them. I always thought that was a fun little message.

John Bytheway: 03:37 That’s great. Do that in our families. Yeah.

Hank Smith: 03:39 We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We’re with Dr. Teresa Bell this week and we think you’ll really enjoy what she has to say about these chapters. Then come back next week for another followHIM Favorites.