I Keep Coming Back to Brother Reid's Talk on Teaching at Home

Brother Gabriel W. Reid's talk in the Sunday afternoon session of October conference is called "You Are Good Enough To Teach," and the title sent me back to it twice this week. He was speaking to anyone who teaches, but what landed on me was the part about teaching at home and one-on-one, which is where most of us do the real work and where nobody hands us a manual.

Does a parent have to know enough first?

Brother Reid said he wondered himself whether he knew enough to teach the gospel at all, and he serves in the Sunday School General Presidency. It's the same question I have at 6:40 on a Sunday evening, when Lily asks something about the Holy Ghost and I can feel my answer thinning out as I say it.

What he said next is the part I keep turning over. The Lord invites ordinary people to teach and then helps them. At home counts, and so does one child at a time. Nothing I've ever been taught says a parent has to become an expert first.

Why my own table is harder than a classroom

Five years of third grade and I was never nervous in front of twenty-six eight-year-olds. A principal asked me at Smith's last month whether I'd come back and sub, and the classroom part of that didn't frighten me at all.

One child across a kitchen table asking a real question is another matter. A classroom has a bell and a schedule and twenty-five other children to turn to, while at the table nothing ends the lesson when I run out of answer and the only other person in the room is the one waiting on me, usually with a pencil in her hand and her eyes on my face to see whether I know, which I find harder to stand in front of than any parent-teacher night ever was.

What the Lord says to people who aren't sure

Among the scriptures the talk draws on is Alma 17, where the sons of Mosiah are heading toward a people they expect to be hard to teach. They've fasted and prayed to have the Lord's Spirit go with them, and this is what He tells them:

Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.

Alma 17:11

He says it before they've taught a single person. Verse 10 has Him telling them "Be comforted," and verse 12 says their hearts "took courage." I want to feel ready before I try anything, and on most days I'm still not ready when the kids have gone to bed.

Patient in long-suffering fits a mother's week better than I'd like.

The talk also cites Moses, who tells the Lord he is slow of speech. The reply in Exodus 4:12 is plain enough that I won't improve on it:

Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

I find it a little funny that the Lord's answer to "I'm not good at talking" is "go." No workshop in there.

And "instrument" is an odd word to hold onto while a toddler is climbing the pantry shelves behind you, but I've decided it's a word for exactly that moment.

Love first, then the lesson

Brother Reid said the impact of a gospel teacher comes from the love of the messenger as well as the message. Both matter. The order is what I'd underline.

He also pointed to the Savior's first lesson to His disciples, which was about following Him before it was ever about teaching anyone:

And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

Mark 1:17

If I take that as an order of operations for my own house, then what I owe my children before any lesson is that they see me following. A child can watch that on a night when I teach nothing worth repeating, on a night when dinner ran late and Ben wouldn't stay in his chair and the only thing Caleb heard me say about the gospel was that his shoes belong by the door, and I was still, as far as I can tell, a person walking behind Him.

He closed on the idea that a lesson is supposed to bring the learner closer to the Savior and not show off the teacher. When I get anxious about getting it right, the anxiety turns out to be about how I'll come across.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Church expect parents to be experts before they teach their children?

Not that I've ever been taught. Brother Reid's talk goes the other direction, saying the Lord invites ordinary people to teach and helps them.

Who gave "You Are Good Enough To Teach"?

Brother Gabriel W. Reid, second counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency, in the Sunday afternoon session on October 4, 2026.

What if I teach something wrong?

You will at some point and your child may catch it before you do. Say "I'm not sure, let's look" and then look. I've said it at this table more than once and it has never cost me anything with my kids.

Is love really more important than getting the content right?

He didn't put it that way and I wouldn't either. A child learns from the person as well as the page, so a correct answer given in a hurry isn't worth much if the child walked away feeling like a bother.

Where do I start if I want to teach the gospel to my children and keep avoiding it?

Pick one thing a child said this week and go back to it. "I read something and wondered what you think" takes under a minute, and it needs no manual. If conference weekend left you with more than you can use, our conference weekend setup has what worked for us and what didn't.

On Sunday after the roast I'm going to read Alma 17:11 out loud to Caleb and Lily and ask what they think an instrument is. Then I'm going to stop talking and see what they say.

with love, Melissa