John Bytheway and Hank Smith on Living in the Present, Not looking back with regret or forward with worry
SOURCE: Follow Him Podcast w/ C Robert Line | JUNE 21 – JUNE 27 | EPISODE 26 PART II
John Bytheway: 03:11 I just wanted to tell you something I underlined in verse 14, I just thought, wow, look at that first phrase, "Let not your minds turn back." As everything we've been talking about, I put my margin... and this is an application of that, not necessarily what exactly tied to the context and the people, but I'm looking at that going, "Don't dwell on the past. Let, not your minds turn back." Everything we've talked about in repentance and moving forward. I just like that that phrase.
Hank Smith: 03:47 Yeah. That's a great phrase John.
John Bytheway: 03:48 Regret focuses on the past, worry focuses on the future, but focusing on what's right in front of us, my favorite golf quotation is, "The only thing that matters in golf is the next shot." So, what do I do today? The next shot. What do I do today? "Let not your minds turn back." Yeah, you got the bogey, but what's right in front of you right now?
Dr. C. Robert L...: 04:14 And you see this in the gospel like you said, it's verse 14, "Let not your minds turn back." What did Christ say in the New Testament? He says, "No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is worthy of the kingdom." But then He says, on the other hand, in the sermon on the Mount, "Take no thought for the Morrow."
Hank Smith: 04:33 For the morrow. Right.
John Bytheway: 04:35 Morrow. If I could add something, because I went right to it before you said it, I went to the last verse of Matthew 6, in the sermon on the mount, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." Well, in our King James, the take no thought, if you look down below, it's spoken earlier in Matthew 6 and it says, "Anxious concern."
John Bytheway: 04:58 So, I was reading a book years ago called How to Stop Worrying And Start Living, because I'm an expert in worry. I'm really good at it. And the Dale Carnegie dude wrote this book and he pointed out something that I have verified since that, in the King James translation, it says, "Take therefore no thought for the Morrow." But take the NIV, the American Standard, take a bunch of the other reputable New Testament translations, the word is not thought, it's worry.
Dr. C. Robert L...: 05:29 Worry. Yeah.
John Bytheway: 05:30 And our Bible changes it to anxious concern. Of course, you think about tomorrow, that's very President Markson.
Dr. C. Robert L...: 05:36 You make plans and goals, you have to.
Hank Smith: 05:39 There's a great verse in 1 Nephi 16, as Michael Wilcox pointed out to me once where the daughters of Ishmael, their father dies and their mourning exceedingly, which is okay, that's in front of you, that's present, the morning exceedingly. And then Nephi adds, "And they get upset because of all the sufferings they've had in the wilderness." And because they're bringing up all their past problems, and now all their present problems, they start to predict the future.
Hank Smith: 06:06 It's 1 Nephi 16 they say, "And we must perish in the wilderness with hunger," which never happens. They're now suffering for future trials that are never going to happen. This is 1 Nephi 16:35.
John Bytheway: 06:24 Good point. Really good point.
Hank Smith: 06:25 "Our father is dead, we have wandered much in the wilderness, we have suffered much affliction, hunger, thirst, and fatigue. And after all these sufferings, we must perish in the wilderness with hunger." So now I'm suffering for future trials that are never going to happen. And I find myself doing that too. What if this goes wrong? What if this? What if? yeah.
John Bytheway: 06:45 Good point. And you know Hank, that I love Moroni. And in Mormon 8, the poor guy takes over, "My father has been killed in battle, this was his life's work." The book of Mormon. "I have no family, I am alone, all my kindred are gone and the Nephi are like this." And he gets to this point where his whole tone of voice changes, if you read Mormon 8, and all of a sudden, he just says, "I make an end of speaking concerning this people. I am a Moroni, I am a son of Mormon, and I'm going to finish this record."
John Bytheway: 07:24 And it's really... I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but read it, it's really cool how he says, "Okay, I'm done with the past and my problems. I'm going to finish my father's record." And I don't know how long it took him to write Mormon 8, but watch for that moment, it's pretty inspiring to me.
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