On Tuesday, July 7, Sister Linda Ward, a nursing professor at BYU-Idaho, spoke during the BYU-Idaho devotional.
It was another prerecorded session due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Her talk, “The Power of God’s Love,” emphasized the significance and blessing of the priesthood.
“I know the priesthood is the power and authority of God, given to worthy priesthood holders to heal and bless our lives,” Ward said in the devotional. “God has restored His priesthood power here on earth. HIS POWER! The greatest and grandest of all powers!”
Ward dove a little deeper into the priesthood in an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio. She said she gained a greater understanding and testimony of the priesthood after her husband received a blessing for a brain hemorrhage.
“It had a profound influence…in my life,” Ward said. “Because of [the experience] I got a profound testimony of the priesthood, the love of God and His role in our lives.”
In that interview, Ward also shared some of her feelings of serving in a variety of callings in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and how she had priesthood authority to perform those callings.
“I love getting set apart, and I listen very carefully to the words that are said,” Ward said. “I think that’s one of the great ways that we can be strengthened in our callings through the priesthood.
Ward also said that she has never worried about never holding priesthood offices. She said, with a chuckle, that she loves having access to priesthood power without having the full responsibilities of priesthood holders.
Ward, who’s been teaching nursing online as part of BYU-Idaho’s remote learning setup for the Spring 2020 semester, also shared some thoughts about teaching a hands-on major remotely.
“They will come out of this semester with a knowledge base that will prepare them very well for nursing,” Ward said. “Now, we just need to move forward and get the hands-on part of it done.”
Ward said she hopes to get students back into hospital rotations and other hands-on nursing work again soon.
With BYU-Idaho’s announcement yesterday about the Fall 2020 course structure, it’ll be interesting to see which classes in the nursing department stay remote or transition back to the classroom.