Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - followHIM Favorites • December 29 - January 4 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: December 25, 2025

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/T9Sz8RAdVQMALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIM.coFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookBook of Mormon: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastBMBook  WEEKLY NEWSLETTER https://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletter  SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsAmelia Kabwika: Portuguese TranscriptsHeather Barlow: Communications DirectorSydney Smith: Social Media, Graphic Design "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Follow Him Favorites. If you're new to the podcast, each week John and I will share a story that we don't share on the podcast to go with each week's lesson. John, our lesson this week is a little bit different. We don't have a scripture block. It's basically an overview or an introduction to the Old Testament. The Old Testament, even in the manual, it says, you might be scared. to approach the Old Testament.

And it made me think of a story. It made me think of something that happened to when I was a kid. I'm excited to tell you this story. I'm a little bit scared. It reminded me of something that happened to me when I was young. My parents loved to visit the cemetery every Memorial Day. I was not a fan. It was usually the first day of summer.

I did not want to get in the car and drive a long ways to put flowers on graves, which I, as a kid, thought, waste. They're just going to throw those flowers away anyway. But we would go to the store and pick up flowers and then we'd go over. And we'd always pick up my grandmother, who I loved John, but I didn't want to sit next to her in the car for hours. You would see me and my brother on either side of her in the back seat leaning towards the door. We loved her grandma. We loved hugging her. We loved when we got gifts from her. But we didn't want to sit arm to arm with her because we didn't know if being old was contagious. I remember this particular year. We get to the cemetery. I don't know how

I was. I must have been 11 or 12 years old. I'm walking around the cemetery. I thought they were so boring. My grandma was on the other side of this big bush. I was coming around it and I could hear her talking. I thought, Grandma's lost it. She's talking to herself because my other family members were other places and she was alone. She saw me and she said, oh, hello, Hank, come here. And I came over and I said, grandma, who are you talking to? And she said, my family. And I'm looking around going, no, your family's right here. She said, no, right here on the ground. And she pointed some headstones. And she said, these are my parents. This is where my parents are buried. And these are my siblings. She was the youngest in her family. It hit me, John, for the first time. Here I am 11 or 12

years old. And I'm looking at my grandma and looking at these headstones. And I thought, wait, you were young once. I remember those realizations coming. Like, I just thought everybody had a grandma and grandpa. I remember the day when it was like, wait to my own mom. That's your mom? You had a mom? I said, grandma, these are the people you had dinner with.

These are the people you went on vacations with. She said, I know. Yes, I know. And I said, Grandma, this is so sad. And she was funny, John. And she said, well, don't worry, dear. I knew they were gone before we got here. I was like, oh, okay, that's better.

You didn't just find out. It changed my perspective on her to realize that at one point, she was young in living color, living her life with all the emotions of a young person. I think about that a little bit with the Old Testament. To us, it's always been old. But at one point, it was alive. Yeah. And it was like your grandmother's family was present. They weren't old. They were there. For whose world was the Old Testament old? Maybe ours, but in Jesus' world? Right. When Jesus says, search the scriptures, he's talking about the Old Testament. That's what the scriptures were, the Torah, the first five books.

When Nephi goes back to get the brass plates, what's he getting? They're not old. He's getting what you and I call the Old Testament. One thing that can happen this year as we study the Old Testament is we can have this realization that these are real people in real situations who believe in the same God that we do, who worship the same God that we do. There's great stories in the Old Testament. That's what I'm looking forward to people learning about God, interacting with God. In fact, John, I think that's the time where I became more interested in my

grandmother. What happened when you were younger? What was happening in the world? What did you do for fun? What was your world like? She would tell us those stories. In fact, that was my grandma Madeline. John, you know my oldest child, my daughter, her name? Is Maddie. Is Maddie. Is Madeline. When we look at the Old Testament this year, it doesn't have to feel so old. This was their world. I like what you said. These are people that believed in the same God that we do. What did they know and how do they interact? What do we know now? Their lives were different than ours, their circumstances were different, but many of the things they had to do in regards to believing, in regards to trusting in God, very similar to what we have to do. We can be inspired by him.

Yeah, we can get into these stories, and all of a sudden, that which was old becomes new. I remember Elder Maxwell said, with the Old Testament, you find relevancy in antiquity. It comes alive for you. Yeah. Yeah. And these scriptures can become new friends. We hope you'll join us on our full podcast. It's called Follow Him. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. Maybe someone in your life has said, hey, have you ever listened to Hank and John's podcast? We hope you'll give it a try this year. Each week we bring on a new guest, someone who has an expertise, usually in scripture, but sometimes in other areas. This week, we're with Dr. Josh Sears. He has written a new book on the Old Testament. He is. spent his career studying scripture specifically the Old Testament, you will love the things he shares and the motivation he gives and the new insights, the new way you'll see the Old Testament

by the time you're done. And then come back here next week. We'll do another follow him favorite.