I am grateful for the assignment to speak today. I have been richly blessed in my preparations to talk about the importance of stewardship. I have learned more about what it means to be a steward in the Lord's kingdom. I have also been reminded of the special stewardships we have as members of the BYU-Idaho community.
The Definition of Stewardship
If your experience is like mine, you've understood that we Church members are expected to be faithful and wise stewards, but you may have wondered what exactly that means. The word steward is one we don't often hear outside of the Church. The first time I remember hearing the word steward was in the ninth grade, when I began to read a trilogy of books called The Lord of the Rings. The story includes two brothers, Boromir and Faramir, who are sons of a steward. Their father leads a kingdom in the absence of the king. Each of the brothers is tempted by the prospect of power. Faramir handles the temptations better than his older brother Boromir, but each young steward is ultimately true, sacrificing his personal interests and even putting his life at risk for others.
Ninth grade was also the beginning of my seminary experience. The course of study that year was the Doctrine and Covenants. We learned that the covenants we make as Church members come with stewardship responsibilities. The Lord teaches that principle in the 104th Section: "[V]erily I say unto you, I have appointed unto you to be stewards over mine house, even stewards indeed."[1]
The stewardships we receive from the Lord comprise temporal as well as spiritual gifts; we have responsibility not only for tangible things but also for the needs of others and for our individual talents and time. These stewardships come with the duty to account, both now and in the next life. The 72nd Section of the Doctrine and Covenants teaches that, "[I]t is required of the Lord, at the hand of every steward, to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and in eternity."[2]
The Doctrine and Covenants also reiterates a principle that we learn from the parable of the talents. Being a good steward means not just preserving and protecting the gifts we have been given, but building upon them and sharing them. In the 82nd Section the Lord explains that we receive stewardships "for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord's storehouse, to become the property of the whole church-Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye to the glory of God."[3]
In seminary my classmates and I learned about men such as Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, and John Taylor, who honored their stewardships even when it required great sacrifice. They put the welfare of others ahead of their own. Their sacrifices helped establish the Church and assured them eternal joy. We also learned of other Church leaders who enjoyed similar spiritual blessings but failed as stewards and suffered great sorrow as a result.
A few years later, in law school, my classmates and I made a formal study of stewardship, or what lawyers call the "principal-agent relationship." We learned that an agent, or legal steward, has both power and responsibility. When this kind of steward's authorization is publicly known, what he or she says or does is legally binding, just as though the one granting the stewardship, the principal, had said or done it. The legal steward has a related duty of loyalty to the principal and must exercise due care in all words and deeds. Failure to honor that duty makes him personally liable.
As a law school student I failed to connect the concept of legal stewardship to the sacrament prayers that we hear each week. But the elements of a stewardship relationship are clear in those prayers. As we partake of the sacrament, we make three promises. First, we take upon ourselves the Lord's name. This means that we agree to be known to the world as His stewards. Second, we promise to always remember Him. This means always thinking about His plans and preferences. Finally, we commit to keep His commandments. This means acting as He has instructed us to do.
Though we renew this covenant of stewardship every week, we may not think of it that way. It is natural to see ourselves as stewards when we receive a formal calling or leadership responsibility, such as ward Relief Society president or zone leader in the mission field. We might even see the importance of our stewardship as a home or visiting teacher. But it can be difficult to think of ourselves as stewards at all times and under all circumstances.
Full-fledged Stewardship
My given name has led me to think a lot about this kind of all-encompassing stewardship. It might surprise you to learn how often someone I don't know walks up and asks me whether I'm related to my father, President Henry B. Eyring. (All right, maybe it wouldn't surprise you that much.) Some people actually mistake me for my father.
For example, several years ago on this campus, I passed a young woman who was walking in the opposite direction. She stared at me, and I knew what she was thinking. She passed out of my sight, but then I heard a squeal behind me. Before I could turn around, I felt an arm wrapping around one of mine. The young woman looked up at me with a big smile, and said, "I'll bet I know who yo-ou are!" Caught off-guard by her forwardness, I looked down and said, "I'll bet you do-on't!"
Throughout my life I have been conscious of my name. Henry was not a common name for young Californians in the 1960s. In fact, thanks to Herman's Hermits and their hit song, "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am," even my friends liked to have fun with my name.
As I grew older, I had mixed feelings about sharing my father's name. Of course I admired him, but I wanted to be my own person. When we moved to Rexburg in 1971, I hoped to be more than just the son of the President of Ricks College. Even as I tried to emulate my father's many outstanding qualities, I was glad for the differences between us. For example, when I learned that the baldness gene is inherited through a boy's mother, I took great comfort in the thought that my maternal grandfather and uncle had thick, full heads of hair.
However, thanks to a relatively rare hair-loss condition called alopecia, I now share both my father's name and his hairstyle. As it happened, my hair fell out in 1995, the year that he was called to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. As his profile in the Church rose, mine seemed to be swallowed up. That was a time of soul-searching for me. After a period of spiritual grumbling and some self-pity, I realized that I had only two choices: I could either resent my name and association with my father or embrace it. Though I might try to ignore the connection to him, those around me wouldn't, and they would continually remind me of it.
I began to see that, like it or not, I was in a position of responsibility. If I behaved in ways that my father wouldn't, I could do great damage, not only to him and the Church, but to those who might observe my behavior and have their faith weakened. On the other hand, to the extent that I carried myself as he does and expressed both my love and his to those who approached me as his son, I could build faith and goodwill toward the Church and its leaders. Once I got over my personal pride, the right choice was clear and relatively easy to make. I do not have all of my father's good attributes, but that is not what people expect. I can perform my duty as his son simply by trying my best. And, in the process, I become a better, happier person. My small sacrifice yields rich personal blessings.
I hope that you can see how each of us stands in similar relation to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Each of us has taken His name upon us. We have promised to act as His stewards, by always remembering Him and keeping His commandments, especially the commandments to love our Heavenly Father and serve His children. You and I may not have strangers stopping to ask if we are related to Heavenly Father and the Savior. But we have had the experience of being asked what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe and of being questioned about our personal conduct. We have felt a sense of accomplishment when our answers and conduct were admirable, and we have felt shame when we were not behaving as faithful stewards would.
Stewardship at BYU-Idaho
You may have noticed that the scrutiny we receive as stewards is heightened by our affiliation with BYU-Idaho. President Eyring prophesied this. Ten years ago this week, he gave a devotional address here. He called his remarks "A Steady Upward Course." I was not present then, but I have read "A Steady Upward Course" many times. I am fascinated by his focus on us, the students and employees of this day. He said this about us:
"[They] will become life-long teachers in their families, in the Church, and in their work, and they will bless others wherever they go by what they have learned about innovating with scarce resources and treating all they have as if it were the Lord's."
President Eyring spoke particularly of the effect that BYU-Idaho graduates will have on the world. He said:
"The graduates will be at personal peace by having kept the commandments. They will be natural leaders who know how to teach and how to learn. They will have the power to innovate and improve without requiring more of what money can buy. Those graduates of BYU-Idaho will become...legendary for their capacity to build the people around them and to add value wherever they serve."[4]
To understand why President Eyring spoke of us as stewards over "scarce resources," it helps to understand the conditions of that day ten years ago. President Eyring and the other leaders of the Church are always sensitive to the use of sacred tithing funds, which cover the majority of the cost of operating this campus. But his awareness of the miracle of tithe-payer faithfulness was particularly high that day. He was speaking on September 18, 2001, one week after the awful September 11 attacks. The national economy was weak even before the terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people and paralyzed the country's air transportation system. In addition to the hijackings, there were terrorist attacks being made through the postal system, via deadly anthrax spores. There was a real risk of economic calamity and a decrease in the flow of tithing funds upon which BYU-Idaho depends.
Yet President Eyring took the unique occasion to explain how the Lord's kingdom rolls forward even in the most uncertain and difficult times. Noting that prophets have taught us to expect change in these last days, he pointed to positive aspects of this trend, saying:
"We will live for better or for worse with rapid change and the uncertainty it brings. You and I want to make that change work for the better for us and not for the worse...The purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to change [us] so that [we're] not trying to resist change. [We're] trying to have change take [us] where the Lord wants [us] to go."[5]
BYU-Idaho has changed remarkably in the ten years since President Eyring prophesied of the university's steady upward course. The number of students has more than doubled. Yet even with the addition of four-year degrees, the cost of serving each student has remained essentially the same. That has been made possible by a combination of sacrifices, such as creating a third full semester, as well as innovative use of online learning technology. A spirit of frugality and innovation has allowed us to fulfill President Eyring's promise that, quote:
"[W]e must and will find ways to improve and to innovate that require little or no money. We will depend more upon inspiration and perspiration to make improvements than upon buildings and equipment. Then hard economic times will have little effect on the continuous innovation that will not cease at this school, even in the most difficult times."[6]
New Challenges
In fact, hard economic times have returned. You may have felt the sting as family members and have lost their jobs. You may also be aware that tuition is rising rapidly at other universities, making college hard to afford. By heeding President Eyring's challenge to sacrifice and innovate rather than seeking a proportional increase in funding from the Church, we have been able to grow the university while keeping its cost relatively low and its quality high.
In the past ten years the world has also become harder spiritually. Darkness is growing, which means that more good people are seeking to find the light. Because BYU-Idaho is a beacon of spiritual light, we have added responsibilities as its stewards. Our stewardship requires us to think constantly about how our personal actions affect others, and to change when necessary. Some people might say that we worry too much about small things. But we recognize that we are being watched by those who know that we represent the Savior and this university. We also realize that what we do here affects those who are not presently with us on this campus.
It is for our spiritual brothers and sisters, as well as for the Savior and for ourselves as His stewards, that we steadily attend to seemingly small things such as modesty in dress and kindness to roommates. We know that lives, including our own, can be changed simply by what we wear and what we say. I am reminded of that truth each time I perform a temple recommend interview. Everyone who meets with me has already declared their worthiness to enter the temple. Yet I can tell a difference in BYU-Idaho student who literally embodies the principles of the Gospel, as well as the standards of the Code of Honor and Student Living. That student is not only a worthy Church member but a worthy steward.
As stewards of BYU-Idaho we also make sacrifices for those we cannot see but who are nonetheless depending upon us. They include the students who may be able to come to this campus because of our willingness to make room. We do that by creating and filling a spring semester and by planning carefully to make graduation possible in just eight semesters. Our unseen spiritual brothers and sisters also include our yet-to-be-born children and grandchildren, whom we bless as we earn not just passing grades, but grades that reflect our very best effort.
To others, these academic efforts may seem merely temporal. But we know that all aspects of our stewardship are spiritual. We have sensed that when an idea taught in a class about science or poetry or business illuminated our minds and even touched our hearts. When we honor our academic stewardship, all learning is a spiritual experience.
Each of us is tempted in our role as stewards. The temptation with which we wrestle may include a combination of two things. One is self-deprecation, the tendency to think that our current stewardship is not very important. The other, ironically, is self-gratification, the tendency to feel that our temporal desires are too important to sacrifice. You can see how these tendencies might become reinforcing. We may be tempted to say, "Why should I make personal sacrifices for such a small stewardship?"
An Example of Stewardship
When I face this temptation, I have a personal hero to look to. He is my younger brother Stuart. Like my given name, Stuart's name is a powerful reminder of the principle of stewardship. The Stuart family ruled England during the 1600s; the first of these Stuart Kings, James I, commissioned the translation of the Bible that we use. But before the Stuarts were kings, they served as the High Stewards of Scotland. They took their family name from the service they rendered for generations as stewards to the kings of Scotland. When my mother named Stuart, she was careful to use the spelling (with a "u") that was preferred by the royal Stuarts.
Stuart was born just 16 months after I was, and so we have always been close. When I went off to kindergarten he would wait for me in the afternoons at the school bus stop. We played on the same little league baseball team in Rexburg and together farmed the hills west of town. When I left for my mission to Japan, Stuart protected my interests in a girl named Kelly by cleverly serving as her high school locker partner.
Stuart was also called to preach the Gospel in Japan. My mission ended as his began, and we were able to meet in his mission home for a few minutes. Stuart became a better missionary than I was, in part because he had read the grumpy journal entries I sent home each week and decided that he would be happy even in difficult, ordinary circumstances.
When Stuart returned home he became a Japanese language trainer in the Missionary Training Center. He enjoyed the experience, but worried that it was interfering with his challenging BYU coursework. One day he called our father to say that he planned to quit his MTC job. President Eyring was then Bishop Eyring of the Presiding Bishopric. He had an uneasy feeling about Stuart's decision, but he had to hurry to a bishopric meeting. In that meeting, he saw in his mind's eye Stuart meeting his wife in a hallway at the MTC. After the meeting, he called Stuart to advise keeping the job. Stuart followed that counsel. Two months later, he met another Japanese language trainer, Carol Anderson. They were soon married.
When Stuart graduated from BYU, he and Carol and their two daughters moved first to Ohio for a job and then to Pennsylvania for graduate school. From there they moved to Michigan, Japan, Venezuela, and back to Michigan. Along the way, Carol bore seven more children and successfully battled cancer.
After 11 rewarding years with his employer in Michigan, Stuart began to look for a new job. Using the Internet, he found three possibilities. To his surprise, one was in Utah, close to where our parents live. When he looked for a house that was both large enough for his family and immediately available for occupancy, he found one in our parents' ward.
Stuart and his family moved back into that ward, in which he and I lived as high school students, shortly before President Eyring was called into the First Presidency. As our parents have borne the duties of this calling, along with challenges of health, Stuart and his family have been their stewards. Every night our parents have a standing dinner invitation at Stuart and Carol's home. Stuart and his children care for the house and yard. Carol is our mother's visiting teaching companion.
Stuart could work anywhere in the world, and he could fill any Church calling. Yet he fulfills his current stewardship with focused fidelity and no thought of recognition. Stuart is my Faramir, not because he is a leading character in an epic novel, but because he is a steward of epic proportions who will someday be a king with power beyond anything the royal Stuarts dreamed of. The author of that story is not an imaginative novelist or a selective historian looking back on a few privileged lives. It is our Heavenly Father, and He is writing an intricate, miracle-laden life's story for each of us as though we were His sole creation.
A Promise Reiterated
In "A Steady Upward Course," President Eyring said something that is true of Stuart and each of us. He said this:
"...I am eyewitness that God is speaking to you. He really is. He knows who you are-each of you distinct, each of you with some possibilities of great contribution and a good life-and He is trying always to tell you who you are."[7]
President Eyring ended his talk with a promise that likewise applies to all of us. It is both a promise and a statement of guidance for us as stewards of the Church and of BYU-Idaho. He said:
"Our hearts, fixed on Him and His work, will keep us on course, however the wind blows. We will follow His prophet. We will see the greatest work of our lives as nurturing others as the Savior did. We will see the potential in others as He sees it. We will treat every resource that comes into our hands as a trust from Him. We will see our victories as a gift from Him and so be protected against pride. We will not fear because we will know we are on His errand."[8]
With President Eyring's approval, I reiterate the blessing that he pronounced here ten years ago. These are his words, which can apply today with equal force if we live worthy of our stewardships.
"Now, I leave you my blessing...I bless you that every day you are here...if you will ask in prayer to be shown where the hand of God intervened in your life that day, I bless you that you will see that. [Y]ou will see that He is leading and guiding and lifting you, and that He knows you..."
President Eyring continued:
"I bless you to know that what I speak now is the truth. There is a loving Heavenly Father. He has been watching us today as He always watches us. He knows you...He has a plan for you, as He has a plan for this institution, of what it might become if [you] can just have revealed, both to the institution and to you, who you really are."[9]
I pray that we may all live worthy of these promised blessings of stewardship in the Church and at BYU-Idaho. I add my personal witness that our Heavenly Father loves each of us. He also loves this school. I knew felt when I first arrived here 40 years ago. I feel it even more strongly today. I testify that we are the Lord's stewards. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Doctrine and Covenants 104:57
[2] Doctrine and Covenants 72:3
[3] Doctrine and Covenants 82:18-19
[4] Henry B. Eyring, "A Steady Upward Course," BYU-Idaho Devotional, Sept. 18, 2001
[5] Ibid
[6] Ibid
[7] Ibid
[8] Ibid
[9] Ibid