Hero Week: Part III: Henry B. Eyring

Henry B. Eyring. Growing up in the same ward as President Eyring, I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary around him. He was kind and friendly, but I never really interacted with him. It all started when I was interested in my dad's audio tape collection of church talks. As a young boy of ten, I asked my father which talks he would recommend, and he let me take a few upstairs to listen to. I remember distinctly, sitting at my desk in the southwest corner of the upstairs. I had taken out paper to take notes, realizing I was making my Heavenly Father happy in learning about his gospel through his servants. When I picked up the pen after starting the audio tape, the pen went back on the table, and all I could do was listen in awe of hearing what I wanted to become.

That's when everything changed. When I heard other General Authorities speak, I felt the truthfulness of their words, but I never connected with anyone like President Eyring. It was a talk given at BYU called "Come Unto Christ". The talk starts out this way:

You have moments when you want to be better than you have ever been. Those feelings may be triggered by seeing a person or a family living in a way that lifts your heart with a yearning to live that way, too. The longing to be better may come from reading the words of a book or even from hearing a few bars of music. For me, it has come in all those ways, and more.

I had never listened to anyone who could convey the feelings of my heart. I had grown up in a family with parents I felt were perfect, and wanted to have the same drive, the same ability to sacrifice self and give more than I had. As the talk continued, I could feel the same desire he had, when his voice slightly cracked, from love and remembrance of how he felt when reading the same. From the tenth chapter of Moroni:

O, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot. [Moroni 10:32­-33]

That urge to rise above yourself is a recognition of your need for the Atonement to work in your life, and your need to be sure that it is working. After all you can do, after all your effort, you need confidence that the Atonement is working for you and on you.

I knew that day that I would ever be linked to this talk. Despite my failures and shortcomings, even to the obsession of perfectionism, I knew if I kept trying, the Lord would make changes in me. President Eyring then listed goals, not directly for us, but as a witness of how someone knew they were doing what was right.

This talk brought me to listen to more talks, whatever I could get my hands on, to listen how he obviously had accomplished the goals I was just starting. I learned to love the process of asking "how can I know" and "how will I feel". I thank him for always being willing to share how we can become like Christ, not just learn about Him.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.