Congratulations, graduates! This moment, for which you and your loved ones have long worked and hoped, is a testament to your faith and diligence. This graduation celebration is well deserved.
It is also a threshold from one phase of life to another. The BYU-Idaho environment isn’t perfect, but it is unusual. Succeeding academically and spiritually here isn’t always easy. Yet the environment is remarkably supportive and blessed. Perhaps in a way excelled only by a missionary training center, the BYU-Idaho learning environment is suffused with gospel light and warmth. Whether you know what comes next in your life or not, as you leave the on-campus and online-learning environment of the university, things will change significantly. And not all of the changes will seem to be positive, at least in the near-term.
As you enter this inevitable period of change, it may help you to know that change can be your ally. In his 2001 talk “A Steady, Upward Course,” President Henry B. Eyring offered this view of your future: [Show video clip]
You’re going to change tremendously, and the world around you is going to change. The purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to change you so that you’re not trying to resist change. You’re trying to have change take you where the Lord wants you to go.[i]
To be honest, I must confess that I’m not a change-seeker. In fact, as Sister Eyring would attest, I am an obsessive-compulsive creature of habit. I have had pancakes for breakfast every morning for decades. I wear some suits which go back further than that. And I never change my hairstyle.
But President Eyring is right, of course. You and the world around you are going to change tremendously as you leave BYU-Idaho. And the pace of change is likely to increase as the Savior’s return nears.
The good news is that your education has prepared you for the changes ahead, even those that will seem unprecedented. As a BYU-Idaho student, you have become a well-trained natural leader. Your faith in Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation and the Savior’s healing and enabling Atonement gives you confidence in the face of uncertainty. And your sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Ghost will protect you from harm in what may, at times, seem like a hostile world.
Rather than fretting, you can rise above trials and the temptation to fear. Your BYU-Idaho education and your gospel covenants will qualify you for a promise made by the Apostle Paul [Photo], who was no stranger to trials: “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.”[ii]
In the talk “A Steady, Upward Course,” President Eyring made you this promise that Paul’s prophesy applies to you: [Video clip]
We will have a spiritual outpouring, because of your faith and the faith of the faculty and those who lead here, that will lead us to be legendary in terms of our capacity to teach and to learn and in our capacity to innovate without needing the resources that others have to have in order to be the remarkable contributors you’re going to be. And that’s going to follow you everywhere you go.
I hope I live long enough to someday meet some employer who employed one of you and says, “Where did that come from? I’ve never had such a person. Why people just flock around that person. And they want to follow. They don’t have to be led; they’re seeking to go where that person wants to go. And they come up with new ideas. I don’t know where that comes from. They seem to find a better way, and the budget doesn’t go up. I can’t understand it.” And I’ll smile and say, “Well, come with me to Rexburg.” And I may not be able to show it to you, and I may not be able to prove it to you, but you’ll feel it. There will be a spirit here, I so testify, because of the love of God for all of His faithful children. And those blessings will be poured out here in rich abundance.[iii]
I add my testimony of the productive, rewarding future that awaits you. The BYU-Idaho birthright of natural leadership will be yours as you qualify for it. The changes occurring in your life can be a source of personal growth and increased perspective, bringing into greater focus those eternal truths that never change. With faith in Heavenly Father’s plan, the Savior’s Atonement, and the guidance of the Holy Ghost, you will fulfill the prophecies that have been made to you and this inspired institution.
You will lift the people with whom you come into contact, inspiring them to stand a little taller. And you will play pivotal roles in your home and in the Church, preparing for the Savior’s return and the ushering in of His millennial reign. I so testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
[i] “A Steady, Upward Course,” Elder Henry B. Eyring, Brigham Young University-Idaho Devotional, September 18, 2001.
[ii] Romans 8:28.
[iii] “A Steady, Upward Course,” Elder Henry B. Eyring, Brigham Young University-Idaho Devotional, September 18, 2001.