Teaching Youth About the Grace of Jesus Christ | An Interview with Mitchell Taylor

Mitchell’s first book, Perfect in Christ: The Good News of God’s Grace, was published when he was seventeen years old. Mitchell graduated high school in 2021 and has been accepted to attend BYU-Idaho in the fall. He plans to serve a full time mission at the start of 2022. Mitchell has been homeschooled since the third grade but played soccer on the Rigby High School team. During his senior soccer season, he served as the team captain and was voted first team all-conference. Mitchell works as an entrepreneur and one of his businesses was featured on Shark Tank this year. Highlights 3:13 Mitchell Taylor is 18 years old and lives in Rigby, Idaho. 5:10 He was taught by his father about the grace of Jesus Christ. What he heard at church seemed to be different. The Spirit kept prompting him to write a book about Christ’s grace, which he eventually did over two years. 6:50 His father taught him of the parable of the Pit of Sin. If you look up, Christ is reaching down as the only one who can take you out. Justification makes you perfect in Christ. Christ then takes us to the ladder of sanctification. He is always right beside us, holding our hand, as we repent and desire to become more like God. He encourages us to keep trying, even when we fall down a few rungs. This simple parable helps people understand. 9:48 What’s your elevator pitch on grace? In 30 seconds, teach justification and sanctification. 10:40 In 2 Nephi 25:23, there are two ways you could interpret being saved by grace “after all we can do.” Through a lens of grace, we see that we are saved even after all we do, a perspective Elder Uchtdorf has shared. 12:20 All works and ordinances only have meaning and power when they are connected to Christ. We shouldn’t trust in ourselves but rather strengthen our trust in Christ. 15:50 He experienced pain from his flat feet. He finally got inserts perfectly fit to his flat feet that helped alleviate all his pain. This is like getting youth and young adults to Jesus and to understand his mercy and grace. Once they understand that, they will develop a desire to do what they should. All our spiritual practices are appendages to the Atonement of Jesus Christ and his grace. We model gospel behaviors in our home, but how do we model grace? We can model grace in our relationships. 22:00 It’s not our job to get those under our stewardship to practice the gospel or serve. You can, however, offer them grace. 23:30 Showing people grace or unconditional love is not giving them license to sin. Many are confident they want to go to the celestial kingdom but are uncertain if they will make it there. The need for perfection discourages them. Sometimes we bury grace in a culture of legalism that overemphasizes works. 26:30 The medical school analogy teaches that work is required but it doesn’t save you. It’s like assuming that if someone offered to pay for all of your expenses for medical school, that somehow you wouldn’t feel obligated in turn to work hard and give your best service to others in order to show gratitude for the gift. True understanding of grace is the best motivator. 29:40 His yoke is easy and his burden light. Jesus died so we could become perfect in Christ now and become perfect like him later. Works can help us become like him through sanctification. 32:10 Legalistic culture emphasizes the law, works, merit, reward, and earning. Rather, when we see the law as an instruction manual for how to become like Christ, we keep the law not to show how amazing we are but rather to emulate a characteristic of Christ. 36:35 Jesus is with us the entire time. He will never leave us or forsake us. It’s good to strive for perfection, but know that now we can only become perfect in Jesus. 38:30 Building a relationship with Jesus Christ. In Matthew 6, the woman comes to anoint Christ with oil from an alabaster box.