The Good Guys and the Bad

Our six-year old son, Hyrum, was asked to give a talk in Primary, the third time in about five months. The first two times he was so afraid he couldn’t say anything. I stood by him and whispered the words he knew so well. Gripping the microphone, he shakily repeated them.

When he was asked this third time, I was a little concerned. But since he seemed quite willing to do it, I let him try again. Hyrum practiced and practiced the story of Adam and Eve. Sunday came. He got up and held the microphone—a little braver than the last two times. Slowly he said each sentence, with long pauses between each one. I stood up to help him during one of these long phrases, but he shook his head for me to sit down. He finished the talk on his own.

Later I asked him, “Hyrum, why were there such long pauses between your sentences?”

“A war was going on inside me, Mom,” he said. “The bad guys were fighting for me to stop, and the good guys were fighting for me to give my talk. The good guys won.”

So often we experience that same inner struggle between good and bad. Sometimes we feel we can’t win. But the teachings of the gospel rally our strength and give us support in the battle. In following them, the “good guys” in us can always win.

Kathy Summers,
Kailua, Hawaii