The first words I want you to hear today are these: God loves you. He wants you back.
Today, I invite you to trust the God who knows the ending.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said:
“Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount—that is the measure of God’s love for you.” [1]
That is why He sent His Son, Jesus Christ. He knows your name. He has carried your sorrows and suffered for your sins.
One of my students, Porter, recently said in class, “Christ cannot wait to forgive you.” I love that because repentance is joyful.
Have you ever been asked to do something that felt impossible? Have you ever wondered if God was listening? If you haven't yet, you will. And when those moments come, will you trust the God who knows the ending?
The Lord declared: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” [2]
When I was eighteen, I had just graduated from high school and returned from a Church history trip. My testimony of Joseph Smith had never been stronger. I was looking forward to the Nauvoo temple dedication broadcast the next day. That night, after reading my scriptures, I knelt in prayer, preparing for a spiritual experience during the dedication.
As I was finishing my prayer, I heard a voice say, “Tiffany, something bad is going to happen to your dad, but everything will be okay.”
I had no idea what that meant. When I heard those words a third time, I knew they were from God. I fell asleep beside my bed, crying. (Don't ever do that, because the next morning, it really hurts.)
I was awakened by my oldest sister, Christina. "Tiffany, get up. Mom just called. Something bad has happened to Dad. We need to get to the hospital."
I'll never forget my mom's face as we walked through the hospital doors. She was tough as nails, but you could tell she had been crying.
A few minutes later, the doctor came into the room. With tears in his eyes, he looked at us six daughters and said that my dad had the largest tumor he had ever seen. Surgery was scheduled for Saturday, but the outlook was not good.
We were in shock. My dad was only forty.
Our bishop came to give us blessings. I'll never forget when he said, "Tiffany, you are to continue your plans to go to college."
I knew the blessing was from God. But how could God ask such a hard thing? School could wait. What little time I had left with my dad could not.
After surgery, my dad asked to speak with his girls. After bearing his testimony of eternal families, he asked to speak with me alone.
He took my hand and said, “Tiffany, I know you're going to be okay because you know how to pray.”
I replied, “That's the stupidest thing you've ever said. Everyone knows how to pray.”
He looked at me and said, “No, Tiffany. I've been praying for you, and God told me you're going to be okay because you know how to pray.”
I hugged my dad goodbye and left for BYU-Idaho, wondering if that was the last time I would ever see him.
I could not see the ending. But God could.
That first week at BYU-I was one of the hardest of my life. I read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. I created a timeline from Adam to the twelve tribes of Israel and ultimately to Jesus Christ.
The Spirit was teaching me the importance of the Abrahamic covenant and what it meant to receive the promises of priesthood, posterity, and promised land. I began to see that it was about eternal marriage, enduring trials, making and keeping covenants, and creating eternal families.
For the first time, I began to see not only the patriarchs of the covenant but also the matriarchs. There is no Abrahamic covenant without Sarah.
I saw a powerful pattern: God often asks His covenant people to move forward in faith long before they understand His purposes.
Sarah was the first to teach me that lesson. God promised Abraham and Sarah a son through whom He would establish His covenant.
The Lord declared: “I will bless her … she shall be a mother of nations. … Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed … and I will establish my covenant with him.” [3]
When the promise seemed impossible, the Lord asked, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” [4]
The promise was given when Sarah was sixty-five. Twenty-five years later, at ninety, she gave birth to Isaac. [5]
I often wonder what Sarah learned about God during those years that she could not have learned at sixty-five…seventy…or even eighty.
Maybe the greatest miracle was not that Isaac was born; Maybe it was who Sarah had become while she waited.
Because of Jesus Christ, God's promises never fail. What promises are you still waiting for?
Years later, Abraham was commanded to sacrifice that promised son.
President Hugh B. Brown said that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac because “Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham.” [6]
God already knew what Abraham would do. Abraham did not. Perhaps that's true for us, too. Mortality is not about proving ourselves to God; It is about discovering who we really are.
Abraham knew that Isaac’s marriage would influence generations to come. So he sent his servant to find a faithful wife.
In Abraham’s homeland, the servant met a young woman named Rebekah at a well. In just a few verses, we learn she was kind, virtuous, hardworking, and selfless. [7]
He explained that he had come to find a wife for Isaac, through whom God would continue His covenant. Rebekah was being asked to leave her home, her family, and everything she knew to marry a man she had never met.
Her family asked, “Wilt thou go with this man?” Rebekah answered: “I will go.” [8]
As she departed, her family blessed her: “Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions.” [9]
Rebekah could not have known how God would fulfill that promise. Yet she answered, “I will go.”
Like Rebekah, Nephi declared, “I will go and do” the things the Lord commanded. [10] Both moved forward in faith before they could see the ending.
When Isaac and Rebekah were married, the scriptures tell us that “he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.” [11]
Rebekah did not just enter a covenant family; She became part of the way God fulfilled His covenant promises.
Yet the promised blessings did not come quickly.
Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah. In Genesis 25, we learn that Rebekah was barren. Isaac prayed for her, and when he was sixty years old, she finally conceived. [12] For twenty years, Rebekah trusted God's timing.
Can you imagine leaving your family and everything you knew because of a promise from God, and then waiting twenty years to see that promise begin to be fulfilled?
Rebekah could not see the ending, but God could. Eventually, she gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob.
Later in life, after Esau chose to marry outside the covenant, Rebekah counseled Jacob to marry within the covenant. Following his mother's counsel, Jacob traveled to the land of her family.
There, at a well, he met Rachel. Jacob loved Rachel and agreed to work seven years to marry her. Then comes one of the most romantic verses in all of scripture: Those seven years "…seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her." [13]
After seven years of waiting, he believed he was finally marrying Rachel. Instead, he awoke to find Leah. Heartbroken, Jacob agreed to work another seven years for the woman he loved. From Jacob's perspective, everything had gone terribly wrong.
But God was accomplishing His covenant purposes, though Jacob could not yet see them. Through Leah and Rachel would come the house of Israel. Through that covenant family, God would bless generations and ultimately send His Son, Jesus Christ.
Rachel longed to become a mother, yet year after year she remained without children.
Then comes one of the most beautiful phrases in all of scripture: “And God remembered Rachel.” [14]
Rachel gave birth to Joseph. [15] Not just another son in the house of Israel, but the very man God would use to preserve His covenant family and bless Egypt and the surrounding nations from famine.
One day, while studying Rachel’s story, I had an epiphany. Yes, Tiffany had an epiphany. What if those years were not only preparing Rachel to trust God, but also preparing her to teach her son to trust God?
Not just any son, but Joseph, who would be betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and imprisoned. [16] When everything seemed to go wrong, did Joseph remember about what his mother had taught him about trusting God?
Neither Rachel nor Joseph could see the ending. But God could. Because of Jesus Christ, God's covenant promises are sure. He always keeps His promises, even when we cannot yet see how He will fulfill them.
If you ever feel forgotten, remember Rachel. Remember Joseph. And remember that God is not finished writing your story.
As a student at BYU-Idaho, I became convinced that the Abrahamic covenant is a story about families.
Jacob received the name Israel, but it was Jacob and these covenant women who helped build the house of Israel. The Abrahamic covenant was never just about Abraham. It was about Abraham and Sarah. There is no Isaac without Sarah. There is no Jacob without Rebekah. There is no Joseph without Rachel. There is no house of Israel without covenant women.
Each discovered that God keeps His promises, even when their fulfillment required years of waiting. The covenant was never about creating one great individual; It was about creating a covenant people.
Everything God promised Abraham and Sarah ultimately points to Jesus Christ. And because of Him, those promises become ours.
Through Jesus Christ, we become part of this family. We become heirs according to the same promises God made to Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob, Leah, and Rachel.
Paul taught: "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." [17]
Their choices blessed generations. Your choices will, too. Right now, you are making decisions that will shape your eternity: who you will marry, what covenants you will make and keep,
and ultimately, who you will become.
What may feel like a trial, a detour, or even a heartbreak today, may be preparing blessings you cannot yet imagine.
That is why I love Paul's promise in Romans: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." [18]
Whatever you do, don't let go of your covenants. Like Sarah, hold to God's promises. Like Rebekah, be willing to go. Like Rachel, trust God's timing. He will keep every promise He has made.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught: "We must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us. … When we are in dire circumstances and want to cry, 'Where art Thou?' it is imperative that we remember He is right there with us—where He has always been!" [19]
I have learned that trusting the God who knows the ending does not remove the trial.
It changes the way we face it.
That first week at BYU-Idaho was one of the scariest weeks of my life.
Growing up, I struggled in school. I had been diagnosed with ADD and a mild learning disability. I was deathly shy and terrified to go to college. Now my dad was dying of cancer.
How could God ask something so hard of me?
The first morning of the semester, I woke up in my dorm and opened my scriptures. I read Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” [20]
I remember thinking, If God could create the heavens and the earth, surely, He could help me get through college.
I went into the bathroom, turned on the faucet so my roommates wouldn't hear me cry, knelt on the floor, and begged God for help. Then I walked to the Taylor Building to try to add a religion class.
“I'm sorry,” the teacher said. “My class is full.”
I was devastated. If there was one class I needed, it was religion.
Just as I was about to leave the building, I felt a prompting: “Go into that room.”
My first thought was, “Absolutely not.”
Again, the impression came: “Go into that room.”
So, I walked in and asked if I could add his class.
“I'm sorry,” he said. “My class is full.”
I started to cry and said, “My dad is dying of cancer.”
He looked surprised and replied, “You can add my class.”
It was a 9:00 a.m. Book of Mormon class taught by Brother Kinghorn.
That weekend, I went to a dance on campus, but I didn't feel like dancing. As I walked home, all I could think about was my dad. I remember thinking, “This is too hard. I can't do this.”
When I got to my dorm, I fell on the floor. I didn't even turn on the light.
I said out loud, “Dear Heavenly Father, I do not want to be here. I want nothing more than to be with my dad right now.”
At that moment, I felt arms wrap around me. Whether it was physical or spiritual, I felt arms around me and I heard a voice say, “Tiffany, your earthly father can't and won't always be with you, but I am your Heavenly Father, and I can and I will always be with you.”
That moment changed my life.
That first semester was extremely difficult, yet I grew in unexpected ways. I became a better student, began overcoming my shyness, and learned that when I looked outward instead of inward, my burdens became lighter. Most importantly, I learned that God knew me.
Over the years, life did not unfold the way I had hoped. My greatest desire was to be married and have an eternal family, but that was not God's timing.
So, I kept moving forward. I earned my degree and a master's degree, served a mission, taught seminary and institute for eleven years, worked in orphanages, traveled the world, and watched thousands of lives changed through the gospel.
There were remarkable blessings, but there was also deep heartbreak. I ended an engagement, faced unexpected trials, and watched sister after sister get married and have children. But I did not let go of God or my covenants.
I learned that waiting on God's promises does not mean putting your life on hold. It means trusting Him enough to keep moving forward.
Fast forward thirteen years: My dad was still alive.
He was serving as a mission president. I was sitting next to him at a baptism when I received an email inviting me to interview to teach in the Religion Department at BYU-Idaho.
As part of the interview, I would teach a 9:00 a.m. Book of Mormon class and the teacher was Brother Kinghorn. The very class I added my first day at BYU-Idaho. My life had come full circle.
At eighteen, I had no idea my dad would live. I had no idea I would one day return to BYU-Idaho as a religion teacher. But God did.
Seven years later, one of my former students encouraged his single teacher on campus to ask me out. We had both taught at BYU-Idaho for years and had never met. The rest is history.
In 2024, at the age of 40—which I know seems ancient to many of you—I was sealed in the temple. I’d like to remind you that Isaac was also 40 when he got married. [21]
Today, I am happily married to an incredibly handsome, kind, covenant-keeping man and have the privilege of being a bonus mom to his four amazing children and one son-in-law. Only then did I begin to understand Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel in ways I never could have before.
Like them, I learned what it means to have righteous desires, to wait, and to trust God when I could not see the ending.
Now imagine what your faithful choices might do for generations to come.
The Lord reminds us in Doctrine and Covenants 58:3: "Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter." [22]
Do you remember how I began today? “God loves you.” I testify that this is true.
So, I leave you with one question: Do you love Him?
Jesus said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." [23]
Do you love Him enough to keep your covenants when the path is difficult and the answers do not come when you want them to?
Elder Holland taught: “The crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.” [24]
There may be things in your life that do not make sense: prayers that seem unanswered, promises that feel delayed, or trials that seem unfair. But God has not forgotten you.
Like Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel, Leah, and Joseph, may we trust God when we cannot see the ending and remain faithful to our covenants until His promises are fulfilled.
BYU-Idaho is a sacred place. It is where I have experienced some of my hardest trials and greatest miracles. As a scared eighteen-year-old lying on the floor of my dorm room, Heavenly Father said to me, “I can and I will always be with you.”
Today, I bear witness that promise was not just for me. It is for you, too. He will always be with you.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Love of God," Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2009, 22.
[2] Isaiah 55:8.
[3] Genesis 17:16, 19.
[4] Genesis 18:14.
[5] See Genesis 17:15–17; 21:1–7.
[6] Hugh B. Brown, quoted in Truman G. Madsen, Five Classics by Truman G. Madsen (Deseret Book Company, 2001), 232.
[7] See Genesis 24-25.
[8] Genesis 24:58.
[9] Genesis 24:60.
[10] 1 Nephi 3:7.
[11] Genesis 24:67.
[12] See Genesis 25:20-26.
[13] Genesis 29:20.
[14] Genesis 30:22.
[15]See Genesis 30:22-24.
[16] See Genesis 37-41.
[17] Galatians 3:29.
[18] Romans 8:28.
[19] Jeffrey R. Holland, "Lessons from Liberty Jail” (Brigham Young University devotional, Sep. 7, 2008), speeches.byu.edu.
[20] Genesis 1:1.
[21] Genesis 25:20
[22] Doctrine and Covenants 58:3.
[23] John 14:15.
[24] Jeffrey R. Holland, "The First Great Commandment," Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2012, 84.
About Sister Savage-Humphreys
Tiffany Savage-Humphreys grew up in Alpine, Utah, and is the second of six daughters. She earned a bachelor’s degree from BYU-Idaho in communications and a master’s degree from the University of Phoenix in education curriculum and instruction.
Sister Humphreys served in the Florida Orlando Mission and has held various Church callings, including Relief Society president, Gospel Doctrine teacher, and Primary presidency member. She currently serves in her Stake Young Women’s presidency.
Before joining BYU-Idaho’s religious education department in 2018, Sister Humphreys taught seminary and institute for 11 years. Working with the rising generation for the past 19 years has been one of the greatest blessings of her life.
In October 2024, Tiffany married Chris Humphreys, a fellow BYU-Idaho professor, after being set up by one of their students. Chris has four children and one grandchild on the way. Sister Humphreys loves to travel and has skydived, bungee jumped and ziplined in six of the seven continents.