In December 1839 the Prophet Joseph Smith and Elias Higbee traveled to Washington D.C., to seek redress from the government for the losses suffered by the persecuted and beleaguered Latter-day Saints. In their meeting with President Martin Van Buren, Joseph recorded that the president “interrogated us wherein we differed in our religion from the other religions of the day.” If you had been in the room and had been asked to respond to President Van Buren’s question, how would you have answered?

A few years ago my sister-in-law shared with me her brutal sub for santa shopping attempt with her young family. Determined to do some good and teach their children about the true spirit of Christmas, they were armed with a list of needs and a handful of wants for a family in a destitute position. She was excited to have her kids walk the aisles of Costco with her, gathering simple things like coats, socks, underwear and then a few fun surprises as she taught them about service and giving.

“The Spirit was so strong as I painted. But immediately after I finished, I was overcome with shame and embarrassment.”

If I were teaching this lesson, I might begin by pouring water into several different shaped containers and asking class members to comment on what we can learn from that activity about the qualities of water. Someone will probably say that water takes the shape of its environment. If you then ask for words that describe water, you might get words like these: flimsy, unsound, mercurial, capricious, changeable, wobbly, fickle, erratic, unreliable, undependable, vacillating, untrustworthy, variable, mutable, impermanent, unsteady, uncertain, transitory, ephemeral, inconsistent, precarious, and unstable. I am amazed at how many words the English language has to describe this rather undesirable characteristic. But this lesson will require us to think about them because we are going to talk about three people who were much like water (one was even compared to water), and one young man who was as unlike water as it is possible to be.

Warren Smith and his wife, Amanda Barnes Smith, were among the first to hear and accept the gospel after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized. They were baptized in 1831 and moved to Kirtland, Ohio, the following year. There they were privileged to participate in many of the early events of Church history, including the building of the Kirtland Temple and the marvelous events surrounding its dedication.

Here are a few inspiring commandments—ones that may slip our memory or get pushed under the rug in the living of life.

What is the best thing anyone ever did for you? Have you experienced an act of service or sacrifice so stunning that you could not stop speaking of it? Have you ever used the word “wonderful” to describe such goodness?