Let Him Be Your Minister

Sister Kelly Eyring

Wife of BYU-Idaho President

Biography:

Henry Johnson Eyring became the 17th president of Brigham Young University-Idaho in April 2017.

President Eyring and his family have had a long association with Rexburg and BYU-Idaho. He first came to the area as a child when his father, President Henry B. Eyring, served as president of Ricks College.

He returned to Rexburg and the relatively new BYU-Idaho in 2006. Over the ensuing 11 years at the university, he has served as associate academic vice president over Online Learning, dvancement vice president, and academic vice president.

Prior to his work at BYU-Idaho, President Eyring worked as a strategy consultant at Monitor Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as MBA director at Brigham Young University in Provo.

President Eyring has served in various callings in the Church, including as a full-time missionary in the Japan Nagoya Mission, bishop, mission president in the Japan Tokyo North Mission, and President of the Rexburg Idaho YSA 6th Stake.

President Eyring earned a bachelor’s degree in geology, a master’s degree in business administration, and a juris doctorate from BYU. While attending BYU, he married his high school sweetheart, Kelly Ann Child.

Sister Eyring graduated from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in English. She has served as a stake Young Women president and Primary president. President and Sister Eyring currently team teach the CTR 6 class in Primary.

President and Sister Eyring are the parents of five children. Their three oldest children are graduates of BYU-Idaho, and their two younger children live at home. They also have three grandchildren.

Spiritual Preparation

Pre-Devotional Discussion:

Please respond to the questions below on the devotional discussion board:

Do you sometimes sense that the news messages you receive have a negative, pessimistic bias?

What optimistic, hopeful signs do you see in your own life and in the lives of others?

Thank you to the choir for that beautiful number. I would like to especially thank Alyssa Dorman for composing that original hymn and the choir, who performed it beautifully.

Welcome to devotional. President Eyring and I are glad that you found your way here. Maybe someone invited you to come or maybe you followed a prompting to come. Either way, you were led to be in the right place at the right time. It is this idea of leadership that we want to address today.

We were so pleased with your participation on the discussion board. Most everyone who shared an example of a leader they know mentioned the humility of the leader. Isn’t that interesting? You shared examples of people who lead in formal positions, in government, or in Church callings. You shared about those who lead out in your homes and your relationships, like your mother and father. We were touched, sometimes to tears, by your words.

Debbie Flagg, an online BYU-Idaho student from Denton, Texas, shared this post:

When I first joined the Church, my first Relief Society president was Ann Andrus. She [led] by example all the time as the Relief Society president and when she and her husband went on their mission. She help[ed] me understand more about the Church [than I have known] in 23 years as a member.

Debbie is a mother to six children, three of whom have severe disabilities. Debbie started as a Pathway student and is now seeking an online degree in healthcare administration. Sister Andrus no longer lives in Debbie’s ward, but she was there to provide loving leadership in the form of service when Debbie’s son passed away in December 2018.

Thank you, Debbie, for your contribution to the discussion board. We are all grateful for people like Sister Andrus whose example teaches and inspires us to follow the Savior through service.

Matthew 20:26 reads, “But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister.” ^[1] I hope this semester you will look to serve your roommates and classmates. This kind of caring is the key to becoming a great leader.

I bear testimony to you that we will all be blessed with the ability to lead like the Savior if we are humble and try to follow Him. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

[1] Matthew 20:26.

Biography

Sister Kelly Eyring

Spiritual Preparation

Transcript

Audio

Let Him Be Your Minister

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