Today’s article is another installment in Brother P.’s column, “Lessons From the Nursing Home.”

We had this guy in the nursing home, and he was the meanest, nastiest, rudest, most demanding, inappropriate, complaining, and argumentative guy you could find.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I am the guy that I’m talking about. I’m not, so you can quit thinking that. He’s a real person.

Just before this guy left our facility to return home, he’d gotten someone to bring him in a handful of Books of Mormon, which he started to distribute to all the people he’d met. He gave them to the staff and left a few in the various common areas.

Here are the lessons I learned from that man.

Lesson 1: Many people mocked him and the scriptures because of his personal testimony of being constantly cantankerous. I learned that people won’t listen to the Jesus that I am telling them about if I am living my daily life in a way that directly contradicts His teachings.

Lesson 2: Even though that man was full of weaknesses, faults, anger, and super-annoying characteristics … despite all this, he was still willing to take God’s Word and give it to everyone who was willing to take it. That’s awesome!

I think God wants us to be the type of people who do our best to follow Him despite the fact that we fail day in and day out, not using our failings as an excuse for not sharing His Word.

This article has undergone ministry review and approval.