Given You in the Very Hour

This evening my wife and I went on a date to a charity event at a high school, and as I was waiting for her at one point I pulled out my phone to read scriptures for a minute.  I was trying to catch up on my Come, Follow Me reading for the week and read these verses: “Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist” (Luke 21:14-15).  I also read and thought about this cross reference: “Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:85).  This promise of the Lord’s, to give us in the very moment what we should say, was on my mind as we were leaving and we ran into a friend from our old ward.  It was a wonderful sister whom I had home taught for probably a year, and we had a quick catch up and learned what has happened to her family recently.  But for the life of me, despite the fact that I had been to their home many times and I remembered their family well and had earnestly tried to care for them, I could not remember her name.  As we talked briefly I thought again of the scripture I had just read and sincerely hoped for the Lord to put the name into my mind as promised.  I thought, “Here it is—I will see this promise fulfilled while I stand here, I’m in the very hour and will be given what I need.”  Nothing.  No name.  At least not until about 20 minutes later when we were long gone.

               This promise about giving us in the very hour is repeated in several other places as well in the scriptures.  Matthew recorded these words of the Savior: “Take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you” (Matt. 10:19-20).  In another chapter Luke recorded, “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say” (Luke 12:11-12).  In our dispensation the Lord said in another revelation, “For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say” (Doctrine and Covenants 100:6).  The Savior also taught, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).  All of these passages suggest that the Lord will help us to know what to say and help us remember in critical moments.  So why didn’t He bring to remembrance what I was seeking?  I don’t know for sure, but now that I consider them more carefully these passages really don’t promise that the Lord is going to help us remember everything we want to remember.  They are all focused on missionary work—He will give His disciples words to say when they are “brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles” or when “when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers.”  Or He will bring to our remembrance the things the Savior has said so that we can teach them to others.  The promise of remembrance and giving us words is really meant for us when we are seeking to be missionaries—that’s when He will be most concerned with giving us the words we need to speak.  So if I want a better memory, maybe I need to be a better missionary.