Hank Smith: 00:03 Hello, everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week’s lesson. We are in Mosiah 4, 5, and 6 today, John. King Benjamin. You know it well. I’m going to read you a verse and tell you a story, see what you think.

  00:19 Look at chapter four, verse 10. King Benjamin says you need to repent of your sins, forsake them, humble yourselves, and ask in sincerity of heart for God to forgive you. “If you believe all these things, see that ye do them.” If you believe all these things, see that you do them.

  00:37 I was thinking about this, and it even says a little bit later that it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength, and I thought of a story from Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. It’s about 20 years ago in General Conference. It’s called Life’s Lessons Learned. He’s just going through some things he learned.

  00:54 He said, “I learned a lesson on a football field at the bottom of a pile of 10 other players. It was the Rocky Mountain Conference championship game, and the play called for me to run the ball up the middle to score the go-ahead touchdown. I took the handoff, plunged into the line. I knew I was close to the goal line, but I didn’t know how close. Then I was pinned at the bottom of the pile.” So he’s down, John. “I reached my fingers a couple of inches forward and I could feel it. The goal line was two inches away. At that moment, I was tempted to push the ball forward. I could have done it.” Everyone’s on top of him.

  01:33 “When the refs had pulled everybody off, they just would’ve thought, there it is, and I’m the hero. No one,” he says, “would’ve ever known.”

  01:41 He said, “I had dreamed of this moment since I was a boy.” Can you imagine, John? They pull off all the other players and there’s Joseph B. Wirthlin, hero of the day.

  01:50 “But then,” he said, “I remembered the words of my mother. ‘Joseph, do what is right, no matter the consequence.’ I wanted so desperately,” he says, “to score that touchdown, but more than being a hero in the eyes of my friends, I wanted to be a hero in the eyes of my mother. So I left the ball where it was, two inches from the goal.”

  02:14 He says, “I didn’t know it at the time, but this was a defining experience. Had I moved the ball, I could have been a champion for a moment. The reward would’ve been temporary glory, but it would’ve been too steep and too lasting a price. It would’ve engraved upon my conscience a scar that would’ve stayed with me the remainder of my life.” Elder Wirthlin and his mom believed all these things, and he saw and she saw that he would do them. That he would do them. It’s not think about doing them. It’s not do them when it’s convenient. It’s do them.

John Bytheway: 02:52 I love the part at the end about, I would’ve had some temporary joy. I’m a hero. But the rest of your life you’d remember this.

Hank Smith: 03:00 I’d remember that one moment where I cheated. Absolutely amazing. So thanks, Elder Wirthlin, for your story.

  03:08 We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. Come get it wherever you get your podcasts, and then join us next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorites.