Go Forth as Men and Women of Honor and Loyalty

"A Go Forth as Men and Women of Honor and Loyalty"
April 26, 2003
President James E. Faust

President Bednar, members of the Board of Trustees, faculty and staff, graduates and parents, as I open my address today, I am reminded of a statement made by Senator Robert Dole to the graduating class at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He noted, A Being a commencement speaker is like being a corpse at a funeral. They need you in order to hold the event, but nobody expects you to say very much.@ You graduates are anxious to receive your diplomas, and perhaps your parents and families are more so. You will be relieved to know I have long been of the opinion that speeches do not have to be endless to be eternal.

As vice chairman of the board of trustees of the Church Board of Education, I express appreciation to Commissioner Hal Eyring for his continued excellent service as Church Commissioner of Education. I also express appreciation to President Bednar, his associates in administration, and staff and faculty for their inspired leadership in the challenging task of enhancing this institution to a four-year university.

To have any degree from this university is a singular recognition. BYU-Idaho, along with your sister institution in Provo, are the only universities in the world where the majority of the Board of Trustees are prophets, seers, and revelators. This ensures that this institution= s spiritual moorings will be maintained over its life. Only in this way can we justify the expenditure of millions of dollars of tithing money this institution requires. This money is A impressed with a holy trust.@

I know your professors and teachers have tried very hard to prepare you to go forth into the business and professional world. We appreciate the faculty of this university and hope they are not too happy to see you graduates leave! We all thank them for their considerable efforts to help you qualify for your degrees. Parents, wives, husbands, and other family members share in full measure the honor and pride of this day because of their sustaining support.

To look into your faces today is inspiring. You represent well the splendid young people of our Church, and we applaud you. A few of you, perhaps, may have felt that some of the standards at BYU-Idaho are repressive. I think President Bednar and his predecessors are trying to tell you that how you look will affect how you think and act. This is projecting to the future. It is part of your education. When you walk down the street, when you sit in councils, when you speak, people will see you as truly enlightened, liberated, and educated individuals. They will know that you are trying to live above the debasing and confining feelings, thoughts, and actions being merchandised in this finite world.

I am grateful to see the sisters who are graduating today. This fulfills what President Brigham Young urged young women to do. He said: A We have sisters here who, if they had the privilege of studying, would make just as good mathematicians or accountants as any man; and we think they ought to have the privilege to study these branches of knowledge that they may develop the powers with which they are endowed.@

Today is a day for you and your family to savor. It is a time of accomplishment, satisfaction, and joy. Please cherish every moment. But perhaps in the future, you will take time to reflect on something I am going to say. As a child, I recall my father struggling through law school as a disabled veteran of World War I. He had a wife, who did not work, and three small boys. We might have gone hungry at times except for the generosity of our grandparents who had a farm. Some years later, when I was a teenager, I recall my father saying something very sobering. He thought his graduation from the university would end his troubles, but he learned that the challenges were just beginning. That has been my experience as well. The years spent in the university are challenging, but in some ways they are the most rewarding of a lifetime.

Graduation opens up great challenges, opportunities, and blessings far beyond our wildest dreams. You must continually learn to function and live in this increasingly complex world. If you are to succeed, you will need to work very hard just to keep up with changes in technology. You will need to be smart. You will need to learn wisdom. As President Hinckley has said to your generation, A This is an age that requires that you really dig into it and master it. You cannot just do it halfway.@

I urge you not to be afraid of the future. Mark Twain said, A I have had a lot of problems in my day . . . most of which never happened.@ Prepare for the future. You have the heritage, training, and the faith to make remarkable achievements in the various roles you will play in life. Obedience to the commandments of God and love and service to others are the grand keys to your happiness here and hereafter. Upon these A hang all the law and the prophets.@

At the commencement of the University of Utah School of Medicine on Friday, May 25, 2002, President Cecil O. Samuelson, former dean of that medical school and vice-president of Health Sciences at the University, and newly appointed President of Brigham Young University, gave some excellent suggestions to that body in 2002 and I would like to quote some of these in abbreviated form:

1. 1. A Be totally honestB not only with others but with yourself.@
   2. Some A of you may already have significant debt and increasing financial obligations.@ In time your education will afford more income which A will not go as far as you now contemplate.@ So you will want to live within your income and save a little.
   3. A Learn to become an even better listener than you are now. Listen carefully to those who will help and teach you, but also listen particularly closely to those who know you best and love you most.@
   4. A Keep learning.@ Some A of what you have learned@ may A soon be obsolete.@
   5. A Be involved in all of those things that are important to you as soon as you can. If you wait until it is convenient, it will never be so. Don= t delay too long in starting your families, being involved in your communities, fulfilling responsibilities in your church. . . doing your duty in professional organizations and the like.@
   6. A Always think and watch for a better way to do things. This will certainly apply to procedures, research, . . .and approaches, but also should include your human touch.@
   7. A Take care of yourself. As strong, vigorous, accomplished, and important as you now are, you still need appropriate rest, exercise, nutrition, recreation, and rejuvenation. Wise leaders in years past have counseled that we should not run faster or farther than we have strength or means. I hope you will be able to fulfill your responsibilities, find tremendous satisfaction in your work and in your life, and provide wonderful service for a very long time!@
   8. A Lastly, whatever you do and wherever you do it, always make a conscious effort to leave the world a better place than you found it.@

However, a divine facilitating gift can crown your efforts in any endeavor so that you may reach your profound potential.

When asked which feature distinguished the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from all others, the Prophet Joseph Smith answered that A we differed in mode of baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands.@ In your learning, in your acquiring, in your progress, in all your labors always live so as to enjoy the compensating gift of the Holy Ghost. In this way, you can be liberated from the groveling of this world.

Cultivating and seeking the gift of the Holy Ghost in our endeavors is entirely consistent with the direction given by Brigham Young, whose name this institution now memorializes. This institution has had other names and has memorialized both people and stakes of Zion. It was first called the Bannock Stake Academy, then was known as the Fremont Academy, and subsequently named Ricks Academy, honoring Thomas E. Ricks, a great pioneer. Today we further memorialize the name of Thomas E. Ricks by breaking ground for the Thomas E. Ricks Building.

Thomas Ricks was with the Saints in Nauvoo and helped build the temple. During the exodus, some Indians drove off their cattle. Tom Ricks and others were sent to retrieve the livestock from the Indians. When they came upon the Indians, Tom was hit with three shots, two came to rest in his kidneys, and the third in his backbone. Thinking he was dying, his companions left him bleeding on the ground. An Indian approached and raised his knife to scalp him. Tom put his arm up to protect his head which unsettled the Indian and he grabbed Tom= s gun and left.

Later, recounting this to family members he said, A While I lay there weltering in blood, . . . I heard a voice say audibly and clearly, > You will not die; you will go to the valley of the mountains and there you will do a great work in your day and generation.@ This was literally fulfilled. Returning from a mission in Las Vegas, he was sent to help save the Willie and Martin handcart companies. He went on several missions, helped settle Tooele and Cache County and, at age 55, was called to leave Logan and settle the Rexburg area. He became bishop of the ward, president of the stake, and founded the Bannock Stake Academy.

At Thomas E. Ricks= funeral, President Joseph F. Smith said, A It may be a long time before we find another man his equal in honor, mind, and unswerving loyalty to the cause of God and his people.@ I wish to pay tribute also to the considerable contributions of the descendants of Thomas E. Ricks to this community, this State, and to the Church. It would be unfair to single out any one person but I have been personally acquainted with the several of them. To you of the Ricks Family please accept of our thanks and appreciation for all that you have done, are doing, and will do in the future.

In conclusion, I pray that as graduates of this institution, you will go forth as men and women of honor and loyalty. May you persist one day at a time. May you make a lasting contribution in your journey. May you take your family with you every step of the way. May you continue with faith in God and his duly called leaders, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

NOTES

1. Reader's Digest, Dec. 1993, 17.

2. J. Reuben Clark, The Charted Course of the Church of Education, p. 319.

3. Discourses of Brigham Young, pp. 216-17.

4. President Gordon B. Hinckley, Washington D.C. Stake Center, Dec. 1, 1996.

5. In Love with Eloquence, Smith, p. 128.

6. Matt. 22:40.

7. Cecil O. Samuelson, Penicillin, Privileges, Problems and Priorities, University of Utah School of medicine Commencement, May 25, 2002, 4-5.

8. History of the Church vol 4, 42.