Hank Smith:                      00:02                   Hello everyone! Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, we are in section 76. You know how big this one is.

John Bytheway:               00:14                   Big, big.

Hank Smith:                      00:14                   Huge. Maybe most important section up to this point, maybe of all the sections.

John Bytheway:               00:20                   It was called The Vision before they started calling the First Vision. The first vision. This is the vision. Yeah.

Hank Smith:                      00:27                   Well, that fits perfectly with the story I want to tell you. It’s a vision that a young lady had for a relationship that she could change. I noticed in section 76, it seems to be a lot of invitations to living celestial. Here’s this celestial glory. Come live this way. Years ago, I was in a seminary class. I noticed that one student, her name was Savannah. She had a really close relationship with her younger sister. She’s about two years younger than her. They were such good friends, and I admire that, John, in a teenager that has a close relationship with a sibling. That’s a sign of spiritual maturity. Well, I asked Savannah about it. I said, have you always been this close? And she said, no. Like, there’s a story behind this. No. Once she told me, I asked her to write it down. Here’s what she wrote.

                                           01:21                   She said, Brother Smith, my sister Katie and I never got along as well as my parents wanted us to. When Savannah was beginning high school and Katie was in junior high, she said, I never put any effort in getting along with her. We constantly fought over everything. We fought over clothes, food, chores. She said, we especially fought when she wanted to hang out with me and my friends. She said, as a punishment, our parents would make us sit in the same room until we got along. Did you ever do that with you know, you gotta wear this sibling shirt where you both have to wear the shirt. She said, so we would just fake apologize to each other so we could get out. She said, as I got older, I would yell at her for doing things. In the back of my mind, I would realize that I used to do those same things when I was that age. She said, I always felt sorry about that. I knew I should apologize, but I wouldn’t. I couldn’t let go of my pride. I rationalized thinking things like all siblings fight. It’s normal. She said, come on I know we’ll be friends when we grow up. What’s the point of trying now? But things changed. John, she said, as time went by, I watched my sister’s self-esteem sink lower and lower. What had happened is that Katie had entered junior high. You know what I say about junior high?

John Bytheway:               02:45                   Oh, it’s one of my favorite Hank Smith quotations. It’s just a bad idea.

Hank Smith:                      02:51                   It’s a terrible idea. Let’s take the most insecure people in society. We’ll put them in the same building together for eight hours a day. It’s like an emotional hunger games. We’ll see who comes out with self-esteem.

John Bytheway:               03:04                   Yeah.

Hank Smith:                      03:05                   Katie was going through a lot of bullying at school. Then she was getting bullied at home. She couldn’t get away from it. Savannah says this. She said, I know she needed me. I know I couldn’t keep putting in such minimal effort to get along with her. There was this moment Savannah told me about John, where Katie had told her about some of the girls at school who were bullying her. Savannah got really mad. They’re bullying you almost like no one gets to bully you except for me.

John Bytheway:               03:35                   That’s my job.

Hank Smith:                      03:36                   That’s my punching bag. She said it was kind of a gut check moment when Katie said, you’re way worse than them. Oh, ouch. She said, Brother Smith, I’m a good person. My church leaders love me. My teachers love me. I’m a good person. But she said, I sat on my bed going, I’m a bully. She said, it was like finding out I was Prince Hans in Frozen. I’m a bad guy.

John Bytheway:               04:02                   Yeah.

Hank Smith:                      04:03                   She said, I saw I only had a couple of years left. I was gonna leave for college. I would probably be out of chances. She’s decided one goal, John. She said, my goal was to tell my sister I loved her every day. She said, I remember distinctly, I’d never heard my sister tell me she loved me. She said, that saddened me. My own sister wasn’t comfortable enough to just tell me that she loved me. I made that my goal. I was gonna hear my sister tell me that she loved me without me having to say it first. She went into the bathroom that first day as she’s leaving for school and said, bye, Katie. I love you. I love you. And Katie went, ew. What? She goes, I love you. She said, Ew, I don’t love you. Ah, so frustrating. She said, but I would do little things. When I felt a fight coming on, I would pause and I would take a step back and say, wow, is this really worth fighting over? She said, the answer was always no. Things started to change slowly. We still fought, but our apologies became real. Instead of hating to apologize. Saying sorry actually gave me some peace and some happiness. There she is John, every day going to school. Bye Katie. I love you, Katie would say. Kay, thanks. Bye. Every time. Bye Katie. I love you. Kay. Thanks.

John Bytheway:               05:26                   Okay, thanks.

Hank Smith:                      05:27                   Bye. Which I think all girls should say to boys in high school. Yeah. I love you. Kay thanks. Thanks. Bye.

John Bytheway:               05:37                   Especially the bye part. Yeah.

Hank Smith:                      05:38                   Yeah. Goodbye. She said, I still remember the day it happened. I was on my way out of the house. I was in a hurry and I didn’t tell her that I loved her. She said, well, I hear her chase me down out of the bathroom, down the hall and over the railing. She said, Savannah and Savannah said what? She said, you know, say it. Say what? And she said, you know, like,

John Bytheway:               06:08                   Wow.

Hank Smith:                      06:08                   You know, she gave the little heart sign like, come on.

                                           06:12                   Savannah was funny. She said, what do you mean? Like what are you talking about? She said, Savannah, I love you. And Savannah said, I don’t think she realized how happy she made me that day. That’s all I could think about. And then she wrote this, John, think about this from going from a telestial way of living to a celestial way of living. This is what she said. I had a taste of what a relationship with my sister could be like, and I wanted more. There’s actually an epilogue to this story John. I ended up seeing Savannah just a couple of years ago, and she was married to a wonderful guy named Nate. I said, Nate, how great is it being married to Savannah? She was such a great seminary student. I said, do you ever see Katie? He kind of looked at me like this. He’s like. He said under his breath. He’s like, it’s like I married two people. She’s always there.

John Bytheway:               07:16                   She’s, oh, that’s great.

Hank Smith:                      07:18                   Savannah laughed and she said, I told him, look, if you’re gonna marry me, my best friend comes with me. They’re the best of friends. It was a girl John who saw something telestial happening in her life and decided, I’m gonna make a change.

John Bytheway:               07:34                   Wow. I love it. This could bless a lot of people out there listening because it’s not, well, she had it coming. It’s not, she makes me mad. It’s like, I could change. I could do something different. She did. Great story.

Hank Smith:                      07:48                   It took her a while. She said it didn’t turn around overnight because Katie didn’t trust me at first because I had hurt her for so long. It took a while to earn her trust. But once it happened, I remember going to Savannah’s farewell. I’d never seen a little teenage girl crying so hard as her sister. Don’t leave me. But they are still best of friends. I think Section 76, John, is inviting us to live a higher holier way. 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. Spencer Fluhman this week, and John recording with Dr. Fluhman was a life-changing experience.

John Bytheway:               08:29                   Yeah.

Hank Smith:                      08:29                   It really was.

John Bytheway:               08:30                   So excited for everybody to hear this.

Hank Smith:                      08:32                   Yeah, he does a great job. He knows the history, he knows the verses. He knows the doctrine. It’s really great. Come back here next week we’ll do another followHIM Favorites.