Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Enemies to Sisters to Besties • followHIM Favorites • July 7 - 13 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

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Hello everyone, welcome to Follow Him Favorites. This is where John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week's lesson. John, we're in section 76. You know how big this one is? Big big. Huge. Maybe most important section up to this point, maybe of all the sections. It was called The Vision before they started calling the first vision the first vision.

This is the vision. Yeah. 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. 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. Do you ever do that with you? No, 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. Oh, it's one of my favorite Hank Smith quotations. It's just a bad idea. 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. Yeah. 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. That's my job. 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. Yeah.

She said, I saw, I only had a couple of years left. I was going to 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 going to 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, Ooh, what? She goes, I love you. She said, Ooh, 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 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, K, thanks, bye. Every time, bye Katie, I love you, K, thanks. K, thanks. Bye. Which I think all girls should say to boys in high school. I love you, K, thanks.

Thanks. Bye. Yeah, especially the bye part. 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, say it, say what? And she said, you know, you know, she gave the little heart sign, like, come on. 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. 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. Oh, that's great. Savannah laughed and she said, I told him, look, if you're going to 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 going

to make a change. 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, I could change. I could do something different

She did great story. It took her a while She said it didn't turn around overnight because Katie didn't trust me at first because I had heard 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. 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 Follow Him. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We're with Dr. Spencer Fluman this week and John recording with Dr. Fluman was a life-changing experience. Yeah. It really was. So excited for everybody to hear this.

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 Follow Him favorites.