followHIM - The Family: A Proclamation to the World : followHIM Favorites with Dr. Jenet Erickson

Episode Date: December 12, 2021

Hank, John and Dr. Jenet Erickson share their favorite thought from this week's Come, Follow Me lesson.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/episodesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive ProducersDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: MarketingLisa Spice: Client Relations, Show Notes/TranscriptsJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Rough Video EditorAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsKrystal Roberts: French TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-pianoPlease rate and review the podcast.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Follow Him Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I'm the host of a podcast called Follow Him with my good friend, John, by the way. Welcome, John. Thanks. Thanks, my good friend, Hank. Yeah. And this week we are welcomed. We welcome our wonderful, brilliant guest, Dr. Janet Erickson. Welcome, Dr. Erickson. Thank you. Yeah. We're going to have a good time today. Follow Him Favorites is where we do a very small version of our podcast where each of us gets to choose one thing from this week's lesson to talk about.

For those who just, they have a really busy life, John and Jenna, and they can't listen to the entire podcast, but they can listen to a tiny one. So John, what is this week's follow him favorite? Our lesson this week is on The Family, A Proclamation to the World. Oh, I just think there's so much here and we've talked about so much. This is the hardest I've ever thought about.

What could I possibly say? Because I'm so excited for everybody to go back and listen to the whole thing. The things that Janet talked about with regard to the science backing up so much of this. Anyway, but I just remember a story that has always helped me about this father that came home from, this is an old story. He came home from work, grabbed the newspaper. Now, anciently, we used to read the news on a newspaper instead of on a screen.

Anyway. If you don't know what that is, you'll have to ask him. Yeah, what is a newspaper? So he's reading the newspaper and his little boy keeps tugging at him, Dad, come and play with me. And he's like, just a minute, I'm reading the paper. Dad, come and play with me, just a minute. And it goes on and on.

And finally, the dad sees on the back of the newspaper this advertisement with a big picture of the planet, the whole world in this advertisement. And so he tears it up in little pieces, throws it on the floor and says, hey, here's a little puzzle for you. When you put that together, that planet together, then I'll come and play with you. And goes back to reading the paper. Well, in very short order, all of a sudden, little boy's tugging at his dad again. Okay, dad, I'm done. And he looks over and sure enough, he's put this whole puzzle of the planet together. How did you do that so fast?

And the little boy said, well, I guess you didn't see it. But on the other side of the paper, on the other side of the world, there was a home. And that was easy to put together. And when I put the home together, the world fell into place. And that's how one of those movies that the church made ended years ago. And I love that idea that our world is stronger when our homes are stronger. And all of you young people listening, look forward to your home and your family and your marriage. And right now, be a help to mom and dad to brothers and sisters to help that home be

strong where you live right now wow that's awesome john oh that that's fantastic i love that um the idea that if every family in the world lived by these nine paragraphs the world would fall into place everything would yeah we try to fix the world with legislatures and stuff, but why don't we just start with our homes? Yeah. My follow him favorite is going to be in, oh goodness, paragraph one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. I think it is paragraph seven. The big one. One statement.

Yeah, the big one that just says happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes we skip over that sentence. I've read it many times, but that last little phrase, the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, in that is a lifetime of study. We have a lifetime's worth of studies of the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. I teach the New Testament at BYU, and I have been teaching this for 11 years now, I think, at BYU, John and Jenna, and it just is never-ending. I find more all the time when I read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and that's just a portion of the Savior's teachings. We have the Doctrine and Covenants that we've been studying this year. My follow-him favorite here is if you want to increase the happiness of your family, then let's get into the scriptures

and find the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ and then live them. All throughout the Book of Mormon, all throughout even the Old Testament, there are principles and never-ending principles that will bless your family. And by the way, if you keep listening to Follow Him, we're going to help you find those principles. So I hope you'll listen to the entire podcast. Now, the reason we're here, John, is to just be side dishes for the real main event here, and that's Dr. Erickson. So Dr. Erickson, tell us what your Follow Him favorite is. Yeah, I love the favorites you shared. I think, John, that whole idea of that last line of the proclamation that says the family is the fundamental unit of society. And just across all the data, when we look at it, this beautiful relationship of children

with their parents being nurtured in the extension of extended family bonds as well. You just see that is the strength of nations. It literally rests upon that. And so you're exactly right. And then to hear Hank, you talk about throughout the proclamation that that founding, that a family founded on the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the place truly whatever he lays his hands upon lives and his teachings give us the light to the path of joy in our relationships. His teachings are all about how to have stronger relationships. My favorite part is the way this proclamation starts out. And when the Lord tells us through

his prophets that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, he's telling us about the relationship our heavenly parents have with one another, and that the family is central to the creator's plan for the eternal destiny of his children. That the reason the earth was created was for family to come. That the reason there was a fall, Eve knew we have to have life. She wanted greater light and knowledge. That led her to seeking for a family to be born and Adam following, seeing the truth in that. And then the atonement being the way that families are sealed together and that we as the eternal family of our heavenly parents are sealed to them, sealed up to them forever is just so beautiful. And then it says all human beings, me, male and female are created in the image of God as children of beloved heavenly parents.

And to think of what that means for women to be in the image of our heavenly mother, who is an equal with our heavenly father, God, the father and God, the mother, and that we come from them is just foundational. And we have the divine capacity because we are their children, their literal children with their spiritual DNA to become as they are, to become the kind of people that can be in that kind of marriage, that kind of family. And that's the Savior's whole work. He promises us, I will change you. I will enable you to be the kind of person that can be that husband, that father, that wife, that mother. And when I fail, the beautiful thing is every day as I'm learning and growing in this great

gospel of redemption, this plan of redemption and not perfection, I love to be able to tell my children, I cannot be a perfect mother or father to you. I want to be all that I can be, but you have a perfect mother and a perfect father and they will never abandon you. And they will teach me. Their work is to teach me how to be better for you and to teach you how to prepare to be the kind of parent you need to be for your children. So it's this great plan where we're part of a family here on earth and we're part of this grand family where we have already been redeemed and given perfect parents to lead and guide us and a savior to help give us the power to become as they are. That's the foundation of the proclamation right there. We're all part of that. That was wonderful.

If you want to hear more from Dr. Erickson, you need to join us on the full podcast, Follow Him. If you don't know how to find a podcast, find someone who knows how to find podcasts so you can find us. Use your Google and thumb them and type in Follow Him podcast. You're certain to find us, certain to find us. Use your Google and thumb them and type in Follow Him Podcast. You're certain to find us.

Certain to find us. You want to hear our episodes with Dr. Erickson. But if not, we understand. We hope you'll join us next week for Follow Him Favorites. Thank you.