My Grace Shall Attend You

Elder Eduardo Gavarret told a story from his youth in the most recent general conference. He recounted how he skipped church to play in a soccer game with his friends one Sunday, and in traveling to the location of the game he had to pass by the church. He said, “Determined, I dashed towards the soccer field and stopped before the great stumbling block, the chapel. I ran to the opposite sidewalk, where there were some big trees, and I decided to run between them so that no one would see me since it was the time the members were arriving at the meetings.” His deacon’s quorum advisor, though, had seen him. Elder Gavarret continued, “Brother Félix Espinoza had seen me running quickly from tree to tree, trying not to be discovered. At the beginning of the week, Brother Espinoza came to my house and asked to speak with me. He didn’t say anything about what he had seen on Sunday, nor did he ask me why I had missed my meeting. He just handed me a manual and said, ‘I would like you to teach the priesthood class on Sunday.’” And what was the topic? Keeping the Sabbath day holy. He did indeed teach the class that next week and it was a turning point and motivated a change of heart for him. What strikes me about this story was that Brother Espinoza was able to help the young Eduardo change his behavior and repent without actually inviting him directly to do so. He didn’t lecture him on the importance of keeping the Sabbath; rather, he found a way to help Eduardo do something which would invite him to ponder this commandment. It highlights to me that the best way to teach youth may not always be a lecture—sometimes they need a loving invitation to stretch which, if accepted, will help them see the ways that they need to repent.

               More specifically, perhaps this story teaches us that one of the most important ways to help someone grow in the gospel is to invite them to teach. Surely there is no greater learning experience than sincerely preparing a lesson to teach. Almost without fail it is the teacher who gets more from a lesson than the student, and in our Sacrament meetings it is very common for those speaking to express how much they personally needed the opportunity to study the subject they were addressing. The Lord revealed that teaching the gospel is at least one of the ways that we access His grace: “Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:78). He also told a group of Elders, “Ye are blessed, for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you, and your sins are forgiven you” (Doctrine and Covenants 62:3). In other words, He was willing to forgive their sins because they were willing to bear testimony of Him. As we teach others the gospel, we find it more fully ourselves and are drawn to repent and receive forgiveness from Him. The Lord told Peter and John Whiter that the thing of most worth unto them would be “to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father” (Doctrine and Covenants 15:6). As they taught the gospel and invited the people to repent, they themselves would become prepared to rest in the kingdom of the Father. As we invite others to repent, naturally we bring ourselves closer to the Lord and are encouraged to so do ourselves. Like Brother Espinoza, I surely need to find ways to invite my own children to teach the gospel to others and share their understanding and testimony so that they too can find His grace and become more like Him.