From a book titled “Because He First Loved Us” in the chapter “Witnesses for God”, Henry B. Eyring (now a member of the First Presidency of the Church) wrote:
. . . There is a caution I would give and a promise I would offer about such choices of how to use family time. For a person not yet a member of the Church to fail to provide such moments of love and faith is simply a lost opportunity. But for those under the covenant it is much more. There are few places where the covenant to love and bear witness is more easily kept than in the home. And there are few places where it can matter more for those for whom we are accountable. For members of the Church my caution is that to neglect those opportunities is a choice not to keep sacred covenants.
Because God always honors covenants, I can make a promise to those who in faith keep the covenant to create experiences of giving love and bearing testimony with their families. They will reap a harvest of hearts touched, faith in Jesus Christ exercised unto repentance, and the desire and the power to keep covenants strengthened.
There is another circumstance in which the covenant to combine kindness with bearing witness has great power to change lives. Thousands of times every day members of the Church are watched. . . by people curious to know something about our lives. Because we are under covenant to be a witness, we will try to tell them how the gospel has brought us happiness. What they think of what we say may depend largely on how much they sense we care for them.
That was true when King Lamoni met Ammon, as we have it described in the Book of Mormon. Ammon had been captured by guards and brought to the king, who could take his life. But apparently within minutes King Lamoni realized that Ammon cared enough for him to want to serve him. Ammon said when offered the high station, “Nay, but I will be thy servant” (Alma 17:25). Within days the king knew that Ammon was willing to risk his life for him. And then came the opportunity for Ammon to be a witness of God to the king.
Those we meet will feel the love that springs from our long practice in keeping a covenant to “mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort” (Mosiah 18:9). It may not be in hours or days as it was for King Lamoni, but they will feel our love after testing our hearts. And when they find our concern sincere, the Holy Spirit can more easily touch them to allow us to teach and to testify, as it did for Ammon.
Again I have a caution and a promise. The caution is that sorrow will come from failure either to love or bare witness. If we fail to feel and show honest concern for those we approach with the gospel, they will reasonably distrust our message. But if out of fear of rejection we fail to tell them what the gospel has meant in our lives and could mean in theirs, we will someday share their sorrow. Either in this life or the life to come they will know that we failed to share with them the priceless gift of the gospel. They will know that accepting the gospel was the only way for them to inherit eternal life. And they will know that we received the gospel with a promise that we would share it.
I can make two promises to those who offer the gospel to others. The first is that even those who reject it will someday thank us. More than once I have asked missionaries to visit friends far from where I lived, learned that missionaries had been rejected, and then received a letter from my friend with words like this: “I was honored that you would offer to me something that meant so much to you.” If not in this life, such messages will be sent to us in the world to come when those we approached will know the truth and how much we cared for them. My second promise is that as you offer the gospel to others, it will go down more deeply into your own heart. It becomes the well of living water springing up into eternal life for us as we offer it to others. ~ Henry B. Eyring, “Because He First Loved Us”, Deseret Book 2002 p.139-41
