Welcome to Follow Him favorites. This is where John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week's lesson.

John, we are in Section 89 through 92 this week, The Word of Wisdom. I know you know it well.

And I have a story to tell you. It doesn't go with any particular verse, but it does go with the idea of the Word of Wisdom.

John Taylor, the third president of the church, long before he hears of the church, he's living in

England. He's not going to join the church until he moves to Canada. He's a young man. He's living in

England and he chews tobacco. He uses tobacco like everybody else. One day,

apparently he goes to reach for his tobacco in what's called a snuff box. It looks kind of like a

scripture case. He actually stops and he realizes that he's craving this tobacco. He doesn't like

that feeling. He talks to his snuff box. He actually says to it,

listen to me. Right? Can you imagine the box? The box is like, who me? He's talking to me.

He says, listen to me. I will be a slave to nothing. There's no word of wisdom, John. There's

nobody saying this is bad for your health, nothing, none of that. He just notices in himself

that he's a slave to something. He never uses tobacco again. He never uses it again from that day. I will not be a slave.

That reminds me. I had a professor named Joseph Fielding McConkey who said one day,

if you're high on drugs, you're low on agency. And I thought, what an interesting idea.

If you're craving, if you have to satisfy that, your agency is lessened.

What did the snuffbox say? I'm waiting. Yeah, I wonder if the stuff I was like, well, let me show you.

Anybody listening out there, including John and I, we need to take account of, am I a slave to something?

Could even be a drink or a phone?

I've heard some people say life is like getting your spirit to take charge of your body,

because your body has cravings. When you're fasting, you're saying, is my spirit strong enough

to be in charge of my body? To be in control. Yeah. I've heard it said this cell phone is a wonderful tool,

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