Brother Jan E. Newman of the General Sunday School Presidency for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke to BYU-Idaho students for devotional on the word of God and sacred places.
He started off his talk by speaking on finding the beauty in life despite the challenges that we are presented with. He also shared an invitation.
“I invite you to do the best you can, to be a light wherever you go,” Newman said. “There is beauty all around, even in the middle of life’s challenges, with Christ you can shine his light and see the beauty.”
In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio he spoke more about this subject and he spoke about how he personally has been able to deal with his trials.
“I’ve watched other people deal with challenges and trials and I’ve learned a lot from them,” Newman said. “One thing I’ve noticed is that the people who deal with them well, seem like they don’t get myopic and focus right in front of them. They always keep their head up and they look out in the distance and say ‘the future is not going to be where I am today. This isn’t going to last forever.’”
In his devotional, he also talked about finding the beauty in all that we do, including finding our own sacred places to pray and how that will help increase our spiritual momentum.
He emphasized the importance of the scriptures in our lives and how we should continue to search and study the scriptures for ourselves to find those scriptures that could comfort us in times of struggles. He also talked about the power one single verse of scripture can have.
“Imagine the inspiration that came to James to write these words ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’ This single verse changed the course of the world. So I ask you, what is your James 1:5?” Newman said.