Come, Follow Me—the Lord’s Counterstrategy and Proactive Plan

Lots of people are really liking the Come Follow Me curriculum.

Come Follow Me is the Lord’s proactive plan to counter the adversary.

Latter-day Saints around the world are blessed to worship Jesus Christ in His temples. One of those temples is currently under construction in Winnipeg, Canada. My wife, Anne Marie, and I had the opportunity to visit the construction site in August of this year. The temple is beautifully designed and will certainly be magnificent when completed. However, you can’t have a magnificent temple in Winnipeg, or anywhere else, without a solid and firm foundation.

The freeze-thaw cycle and expansive soil conditions in Winnipeg made it challenging to prepare the temple foundation. Therefore, it was determined that the foundation for this temple would consist of 70 steel piles encased in concrete. These piles are 60 feet (18 m) in length and 12 to 20 inches (30 to 50 cm) in diameter. They were driven into the ground until they hit bedrock, approximately 50 feet (15 m) below the surface. In this way, the 70 piles provide a solid, firm foundation for what will be the beautiful Winnipeg temple.

As Latter-day Saints, we seek a similar firm and sure foundation in our lives—a spiritual foundation needed for our journey through mortality and back to our heavenly home. That foundation is established on the bedrock of our conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some places can hit bedrock much closer to the surface. Likewise, some lives must dig very deep to hit that bedrock while others can settle to a solid foundation much easier.

A year ago, in his opening remarks of the October 2018 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson provided this declaration and warning: “The long-standing objective of the Church is to assist all members to increase their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and in His Atonement, to assist them in making and keeping their covenants with God, and to strengthen and seal their families. In this complex world today, this is not easy. The adversary is increasing his attacks on faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate. To survive spiritually, we need counterstrategies and proactive plans.”

Following President Nelson’s message, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles introduced the Come, Follow Me resource for individuals and families. His remarks included the following statements:

• “The new home-study Come, Follow Me resource … is designed to help members learn the gospel in the home.”
• “‘This resource is for every individual and family in the Church’.”
• “Our purpose is to balance the Church and the home experiences in a way that will greatly increase faith and spirituality and deepen conversion to Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

After nine months of this worldwide scripture study effort, what do we see? We see Latter-day Saints everywhere growing in faith and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. We see individuals and families setting aside time throughout the week to study the words of our Savior. We see improving gospel instruction in our Sunday classes as we study the scriptures at home and share our insights at church. We see greater family joy and unity as we have moved from simply reading the scriptures to studying the scriptures in a profound way.

Now, consider again the warning our prophet, President Nelson, gave as he opened the October 2018 general conference:

“The adversary is increasing his attacks on faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate. To survive spiritually, we need counterstrategies and proactive plans.”

Then (approximately 29 hours later) on Sunday afternoon, he closed the conference with this promise: “As you diligently work to remodel your home into a center of gospel learning, … the influence of the adversary in your life and in your home will decrease.”

How can the attacks of the adversary be increasing exponentially while at the same time the influence of the adversary is actually decreasing? It can happen, and it is happening throughout the Church, because the Lord prepares His people against the attacks of the adversary. Come, Follow Me is the Lord’s counterstrategy and proactive plan. As President Nelson taught, “The new home-centered, Church-supported integrated curriculum has the potential to unleash the power of families.” However, it does and will require our best efforts; we need to “[follow] through conscientiously and carefully to transform [our] home into a sanctuary of faith.”