This article was originally published by Church News. It is published here with their permission.
As BYU–Idaho graduates “stand at the gate,” ready to begin a new journey, Brother Chad H Webb, first counselor in the Sunday School general presidency, encouraged them to “keep your foot on the gas pedal.”
Said Brother Webb, “Take with you all the wonderful experiences, relationships and lessons you have learned. Keep your spiritual, social and intellectual momentum. As you do, Heavenly Father will help you to have a successful and meaningful life. Heavenly Father loves you. He will help you,” Brother Webb promised.
More than 2,400 graduates were recognized during the summer commencement exercises held in the BYU–I Center in Rexburg, Idaho, on Thursday, July 24. R. Kelly Haws, assistant commissioner of the Church Education System, who also spoke, called watching the processional enter the auditorium both “humbling and inspiring.”
To begin his message, Brother Webb recounted an experience he had as a 9-year-old boy, living on a farm in Washington state.
As his father drove their pickup truck, it was young Brother Webb’s job to jump out at each cattle gate, swing it open, wait for his father to drive through, then close the gate and jump back into the pickup.
At one point, Brother Webb said, he asked his dad if he could drive the truck through the cattle gate. Surprisingly, his father agreed. Unable to see over the steering wheel and reach the gas pedal at the same time, Brother Webb had to push the accelerator with enough force to gain momentum and then pop up to see where he was going.
After giving the gas pedal “a pretty good push,” Brother Webb said, he bounced up to see how things were going.
“I remember cows running for their lives. I also remember my dad running after me yelling for me to stop,” Brother Webb recalled.
A gate — like a commencement — is a beginning, not an end, Brother Webb noted. “Here at BYU–Idaho, you have been blessed with remarkable experiences, meaningful relationships, and a first-class education. You have gained spiritual, social and intellectual momentum, and now it’s time to scatter the cows.”
Maintaining momentum
As graduates “drive through the gate” into the next stage of their lives, Brother Webb invited them to maintain the spiritual momentum they have gained at BYU–Idaho — to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.
Brother Webb spoke of a man whose autopsy had revealed damaged lungs from a lifetime of breathing air pollution.
“I wonder if sometimes we allow that to happen to us spiritually,” Brother Webb said. “If an autopsy were carried out on our spirits, would it reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the places and times we live in? Are we allowing ourselves, even imperceptibly, to breathe the ‘air’ of today’s cultural narratives and biases? Or do we trust the Lord and hold fast to His teachings, even when they may not be popular?”
Those who choose to give their lives to Jesus Christ can keep the spiritual momentum they have gained, Brother Webb promised.
Another thing graduates will take with them as they leave campus, Brother Webb said, is the Spirit of Ricks, which he defined as the influence of the Holy Ghost that impacts “the way you see and treat people.”
Wherever they go, graduates can take with them the Spirit of Ricks. “Lift people, build community, be a helper. As you live as a grateful and joyful disciple of Jesus Christ, you will make the world a better place.”
Graduates have also gained intellectual momentum during their time at BYU–Idaho, Brother Webb continued. “Take with you the desire to learn and to become the best version of yourself.”
In order to keep spiritual, social and intellectual momentum, Brother Webb encouraged graduates to surround themselves with people “who want what’s best for you, and who will tell you the truth.”
Revelation 12:10-11 reads in part, “I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.”
Brother Webb noted that “the accuser” is an interesting title for Satan. “It is his voice that tells us we have made too many mistakes, we don’t measure up, and that we will never be good enough.”
BYU–Idaho President Alvin F. Meredith III speaks during commencement exercises held in the BYU–I Center in Rexburg, Idaho, on Thursday, July 24, 2025. | Reilly Cook, BYU–Idaho
The other voice is one of hope, salvation and power, and “the voice of the One who loves you most,” said Brother Webb. “Those who hearkened to that voice overcame the accuser. I testify that because Jesus Christ overcame the world, you can too.”
In his remarks, BYU–Idaho President Alvin F. Meredith IIInoted the many blessings students enjoy “at this special, sacred, and set-apart place,” including the opportunity to grow in their discipleship of Jesus Christ.
“You have been given much. And where much is given, much is required,” said President Meredith. “What is required of you now is to go forward and do what His disciples do. President Nelson has said that ‘true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire.’ True disciples do what Jesus did — they go about doing good.”
During Thursday’s program, the university awarded 1,949 bachelors degrees and 557 associates degrees.
