Help Me Teach With Inspiration

Today in Sacrament Meeting the closing hymn was hymn 281 "Help Me Teach With Inspiration." The words to the second verse hit me like a huge title wave.

"Help me reach a friend in darkness;
Help me guide him through the night.
Help me show thy path to glory
By the Spirit's holy light."

The last few months I have become a little nostalgic over the high school days. Karina and I have also had many conversations about the friends that you make in Junior High and High School and how these become your life long friends. With this explaination of my mindset over the last little while I suppose it is no wonder that this verse effected me so strongly.

I had two very good friends that I had hoped I helped and have since last track of. The first, I met at Lagoon of all places when I was 14. Justin lived in Layton and I lived in Bountiful. Justin was only a year older than me so neither one of us drove, making it just that, a phone friendship. He was not LDS and we often had discussions about my beliefs. After Justin turned 16 and could drive he wanted to come pick me up and go out. I had already made up my mind that I would not date until I was 16 and I would only date LDS boys. This was a difficult decision to actually follow through on because I really liked Justin and didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I had made up my mind a long time before meeting him. He respected my decision and as it turns out, began to seek out the missionaries. He took the discussions and after a long time of making sure he was interested in the church for the right reasons decided to get baptized. He called me to invite me to his baptism. This was the first I even knew about him investigating the church. Justin went on a mission, I even spoke at his farewell. We kept in touch for a while after we were both married. I haven't heard from him since the day he and his wife were sealed in the temple to their son. I don't know where the last 12 years has led Justin. I only hope that he and his family are healthy and happy and I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to introduce him to the gospel.

The second was a little more complicated. I dated a guy in high school that my parents didn't exactly approve of. Dale was a good guy, came from a semi-active family, but had an earring and a tail (hair). Maybe that is why I dated him, rebelling a little. We dated for about 6 months and then he started hanging out with a guy that I didn't really care for. This other guy was known to be a partier, something I wanted nothing to do with. Dale began to party with him. I broke up with him. It broke my heart, but I had my standards. Of course we had a ton of classes together even though he was a year older than me. It about killed me to watch him slip deeper and deeper into a scary lifestyle over the last few months of the school year. I cried as he walked across the stage at graduation. I wanted him to know the things that I knew about the gospel and the plan of happiness. I wanted him to be happy and I knew he wasn't. No one was more shocked than me when he showed up on my doorstep in the fall of my senior year. My parents were not home, so he wasn't allowed to come in. I invited him to go for a walk. Pretty sure we walked for over an hour before he began to talk. He poured his heart out, telling me all the things he'd done and tried, but most of all wanted to stop doing the things he was doing. He wanted to be happy again. We set out a plan together. The first being that he needed to meet with his bishop, the second, to drop his bad influence friends, and the third, to turn to Father in Heaven for help. Over the next many weeks, Dale and I mostly just talked on the phone while he tried to figure his life out and me just giving moral support. I prayed for him a lot. I didn't dare spend time with him. I didn't want to fall for him while he was getting his life back together. However, that plan didn't last too long. We began dating again and Dale put in his papers for his mission. I was so proud of him for the long road he traveled and the life changes he made. We agreed me waiting for him while he served hid mission would be a distraction, so we would just casually write. The letters over time slowed down and eventually stopped altogether. He came home early from his mission, and I never did know why. I went to see him after he got home. It was awkward and the conversation really never went anywhere. I have not seen or heard from him since that night. I have thought about him several times over the years and wondered where his life had led him. Is he happy? Has he turned his life around? Knowing Dale changed my life. I learned to stand up for my beliefs even the someone I loved could not be part of my life because of my standards was a life lesson for me.

I know I have had the opportunity several times in my life to help reach a friend in darkness and help guide them thru the night. I have also been led by dear friends who have reached out to me and guided me to the Spirit's Holy Light. The gospel of Jesus Christ is an amazing strength in my life. I am so grateful for the influence strength it is to me.