The Lord Has the Right Person
From “You Are Good Enough to Teach,” by Brother Gabriel W. Reid · Sunday afternoon session, October 2026 General Conference
The big idea
We are good enough to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, not because of what we know, but because we can love the Master Teacher, and He promises to help us.
Objective
Learners will name the promise the Savior attaches to His invitation to teach and choose one person they teach whom they will love more deliberately this week.
Before you teach
- Read Brother Reid's talk, marking paragraphs T35.04–11 (the pattern of invitation and promise) and T35.31–36 (the shorter lesson).
- Write on the board: The Lord invites ___. The Lord promises ___.
- Bring paper and pencils for everyone.
- Pray by name for the people who will be in the room.
Lesson plan
Thirty minutes in 5 parts. Times are a guide; let the Spirit and the learners set the pace.
The quiet question
- After the prayer, tell the class that Brother Reid, newly sustained in the Sunday School General Presidency, said he felt inadequate, overwhelmed and out of place. Read the first key quote aloud.
- Give everyone paper. Allow one silent minute to finish this sentence in writing: I have wondered whether I was the right person when…
- Invite two or three to share only what they are comfortable sharing. Thank each one; do not correct or solve.
- Point out that Brother Reid says the Lord invites all of us to teach: in classrooms, in the mission field, at home, and one by one. Everyone in this room is a teacher of someone.
- Where do you teach the gospel right now, whether or not you hold a teaching calling?
Find the pattern: invitation and promise
- Explain that Brother Reid noticed a pattern in how the Savior calls teachers. Do not say what it is yet.
- Form three groups. Assign Matthew 4:19, Alma 17:10–11, and Exodus 4:10–12. Each group fills in the two blanks on the board for its passage. Allow three minutes.
- Have each group report in one sentence. Write their answers under the two headings.
- Read the second key quote together. Note what Brother Reid said of the fishermen: the Savior did not expect them to become master teachers before they followed Him.
- What does it change for you to know the promise comes with the invitation, and not after you have proved yourself?
- When has the Lord made more of your teaching than you brought to it?
The love of the messenger
- Retell briefly: Brother Reid's first classroom was his home in the village of Leone, American Samoa, with 13 children and two faithful parents under one roof. His father joined the Church as a young man; his mother had limited formal education. What they had was deep faith in Jesus Christ. Many of his earliest Primary classes met in the shade of a mango tree, and what he remembers most about his teachers is how they loved the children and knew them by name.
- Pair-share for three minutes: Think of someone who taught you the gospel. What do you remember most, the lessons or the person? What did that person do that helped you feel the Savior's love?
- Read the third key quote. Then read 3 Nephi 17:5–10, 21 aloud, with learners listening for what the Savior did after He had told the people to go home and ponder.
- Share Brother Reid's observation that class had ended, but the Savior's love for the people had not.
- What does the Savior's example in 3 Nephi 17 suggest about what happens before and after a lesson?
- Brother Reid and his wife learned in the Australia Sydney Mission that the surest way to love those they taught was to deepen their love for the One they taught about. Why would that be true?
A better question
- Tell the class that Brother Reid addressed a worry some have about the shorter lessons in the new Sunday schedule: how to teach everything in 25 minutes. He offered a better question: how can I help those I teach connect to the Savior sooner?
- Read President Oaks's words (aligned quote) and the fourth key quote.
- Discuss the questions below as a whole class. Apply them to home as well as to church classes.
- Check for understanding: ask each person to turn the paper over and write one sentence in his or her own words beginning, I am good enough to teach because… Invite two to read theirs. Listen for the Savior's help and love, not skill or knowledge.
- What can a teacher or parent do that stands in the way of a learner's view of the Savior? What moves us out of the way?
- If the measure of a lesson is that people leave feeling closer to the Savior, what would you stop worrying about? What would you do first?
Choose and act
- Read Brother Reid's two invitations aloud. Explain that he addressed them to every gospel teacher and every disciple.
- Read the promise that follows the second invitation: as we come to the Master Teacher, learn of Him and love Him, He will help us love those we teach, and that love will make our teaching more like His.
- Give one silent minute. Each person writes the name of one person he or she teaches (a child, a class member, a ministering sister or brother, a friend) and one thing to do this week from the act list.
- Bear brief testimony that the Lord has the right person. Tell the class you will begin next week by asking: Whom did you love more deliberately, and what did you notice?
Key passages from the talk
“Lord, I love You, but do You really have the right person?”
“Wherever we teach—in classrooms, in the mission field, in our homes, or one by one—His promise remains the same: He will help us do His work.”
“The impact of a gospel teacher is not just the message—it is the love of the messenger.”
“If class members leave the lesson feeling closer to the Savior than when they came, we have taught enough.”
The speaker’s direct invitations
“Love the Lord and love those you teach.”
“the invitation is the same. Come unto the Master Teacher. Learn of Him. Love Him.”
Scriptures
- Matthew 4:19 Group 1 reads it and fills in the board: what the Savior invited the fishermen to do and what He promised to make of them.
- Alma 17:10–11 Group 2 reads it and fills in the board: what the Lord asked of the sons of Mosiah and what He promised.
- Exodus 4:10–12 Group 3 reads it and fills in the board: what worried Moses and what the Lord promised in reply.
- 3 Nephi 17:5–10, 21 Read aloud in the third segment; learners listen for what the Savior did for the people one by one after the teaching had ended.
Other voices that agree
“A gospel teacher will never obscure [a learner’s] view of the Master by standing in the way.”
“We do not need to perfect ourselves to come to Christ. We come to Christ to be perfected.”
Three things to remember
- When the Lord invites me to teach, He also promises to help me.
- What people remember most is the love of the one who taught them.
- A lesson is enough when learners leave feeling closer to the Savior.
Ways to act this week
- Pray each day this week, by name, for one person you teach, and ask to see that person as the Savior does.
- Before your next lesson, family scripture time or ministering visit, spend ten minutes learning of the Savior for yourself before you plan what to say.
- Learn or use the name of someone in your class, quorum or ward you do not yet know well, and ask one sincere question about his or her week.
- Plan your next lesson around one question: how can I help them connect to the Savior sooner?
Suggestions written for this lesson, not the speaker’s words.
Music
- Lord, I Would Follow Thee
- Come unto Jesus
Adapting the lesson
- At home or with two or three people: skip the groups. Read the three passages together and fill in the two blanks aloud; spend the extra time on the pair-share question about a teacher who loved you.
- Large class: keep the three groups by dividing the room into thirds where people sit, and take one reporter from each.
- Short on time: do the quiet question, read Matthew 4:19 only, read the third key quote, and go straight to choose and act.
This lesson is an independent study aid written for this site. It is not an official lesson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Quotations are word for word from the official talk; paragraph numbers count the paragraphs of the talk as published at churchofjesuschrist.org, not counting headings or picture captions. The activities, questions and ideas for acting are suggestions; follow the Spirit and adapt them to those you teach.