Walk With Him: What Are You There For?

Genesis 12-17, Abraham 1-2 — Come, Follow Me: Old Testament 2026
(February 16-22)

This is a modern-day story of an Abrahamic-like man. It is told by President Henry B. Eyring in his talk at BYU in 1990 called, Waiting Upon the Lord. The story is about his father. 

“To appreciate this story, you have to realize that it occurred when he (his dad) was nearly eighty and had bone cancer. He had bone cancer so badly in his hips that he could hardly move. The pain was great.

Dad was the senior high councilor in his stake with the responsibility for the welfare farm. An assignment was given to weed a field of onions, so Dad assigned himself to go work on the farm.

Dad never told me how hard it was, but I have met several people who were with him that day. I talked to one of them on the phone the other night to check the story. The one I talked to said that he was weeding in the row next to Dad through much of the day. He told me the same thing that others who were there that day have told me. He said that the pain was so great that Dad was pulling himself along on his stomach with his elbows. He couldn’t kneel. The pain was too great for him to kneel. Everyone who has talked to me has remarked how Dad smiled, and laughed, and talked happily with them as they worked in that field of onions.

Now, this is the joke Dad told me on himself, afterward. He said he was there at the end of the day. After all the work was finished and the onions were all weeded, someone asked him, ‘Henry, good heavens! You didn’t pull those weeds, did you? Those weeds were sprayed two days ago, and they were going to die anyway.’

Dad just roared. He thought that was the funniest thing. He thought it was a great joke on himself. He had worked through the day in the wrong weeds. They had been sprayed and would have died anyway.

When Dad told me this story, I knew how tough it was. So I said to him, ‘Dad, how could you make a joke out of that? How could you take it so pleasantly?’

He said something to me that I will never forget, and I hope you won’t. He said, ‘Hal, I wasn’t there for the weeds.’”

One Question for You

Where do you need to tweak doing the right thing for the right reason?