It is an honor for me to briefly speak to you graduates tonight. Congratulations! You are prepared to do great good in a world with great needs. Yet the value of your contribution to that world will depend heavily on the priorities you choose. Heavenly Father can guide you in making these choices as you let Him. I bear personal testimony that He has preferences and plans for you. As you submit your will to
This process will at times seem slow. And there will be distractions as well as some disappointments. If you are keeping your gospel covenants, the disappointments will ultimately work to your good. But in addition to maintaining faith and optimism, you will also need to stay focused.
In His Sermon on the Mount, our Savior spoke of the power of the eye. To those gathered to hear Him speak, He declared that:
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye
The human eye is indeed powerful, perhaps more so than we consciously recognize. In our youth, our athletic coaches shouted, “Keep your eye on the ball.” They intuitively knew that, by some miracle of physiology, our eyes can guide our bodies to position us in just the right place at just the right time.
But the converse is also true. A driving instructor once taught me this principle: “The surest way to hit a pothole is to fix your eye on it and then try to miss it.” I’ve proven that principle to myself, as you may have done to yourself.
My brother Stuart, who started his professional career with an automobile manufacturer, enjoyed the perk of an occasional drive on a test track. Before being turned loose in a high-powered car, he was taught, “In a tight turn, don’t look at the road immediately in front of you. Look instead at the end of the turn, the place where you want to come out. Your eye will guide your hands in getting you to that spot.”
As you leave Brigham Young University-Idaho, it is with power—perhaps more than you recognize. At times you may feel tempted to overestimate that power. But, especially in the beginning, you may be more likely to feel discouraged. In struggling to find your way, you may feel that you will never achieve your goals.
However, if you have set those goals prayerfully and meekly, with the guidance and confirmation of the Holy Ghost, you can rely on this promise made by the Savior as He taught on the mount:
[S]eek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.[2]
This seemingly impractical counsel can be invaluable to a driver in the tight turns of life. The road before you will rarely be straight. And you will undoubtedly be blessed with the challenge and opportunity to play the role of a Good Samaritan, stopping unexpectedly to give aid. The delays may seem costly and even dangerous relative to your goals and travel plans.
But the Lord will compensate for the apparent delays and detours, so long as your destination is one that He has approved through the Holy Ghost. That metaphorical destination might include a high-profile professional position and rich economic rewards. But it is more likely to be characterized by accomplishments of eternal value. Among those are strong family ties and the satisfaction of a life’s work done in the service of others.
I hope that you will avoid mistakes I made early in my professional career. The long hours and frequent travel required by a prestigious job compromised my service in the Church and the leadership of my young family. Speeding like a drag-racer toward a worldly finish line, I nearly lost control in a turn I had taken for granted. I will be forever grateful to Sister Eyring and to the Holy Ghost for guiding my eyes and hands to my real destination, the one of eternal value.
In the Savior’s charge to latter-day missionaries, He has made this promise: “And faith, hope, charity
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Matthew 6:22-23.
[2] Matthew 6:33-34.
[3] Doctrine and Covenants 4:5.