"LOVE LIVING YOUR RELIGION"
August 23, 2000
President David A. Bednar
Today you graduates are participating in a most significant and historic event--the first ever August commencement at Brigham Young University-Idaho. We are especially honored to have Elder David B. Haight presiding at this ceremony. Today is a day you will long remember and a day about which you will tell your children and grandchildren.
In Seattle, Washington, I recently participated in a meeting of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy. Elder L. Tom Perry presided at our quorum meeting, and he was accompanied by Elder Earl C. Tingey of the Presidency of the Seventy. The instruction provided by these Brethren was timely and powerful, the sociality among my associates of the quorum was strong and warm, and the spirit we felt was edifying and inspiring. All in attendance were blessed to share in a wonderful learning experience.
After our quorum meeting was concluded, I was privileged to spend several hours with Elder Perry and Elder Tingey waiting in the Seattle airport for a flight to Salt Lake City. We talked about a wide range of topics, and I had the opportunity to ask these Brethren a number of questions. Elder Perry's answer to one of my questions is the basis for my remarks this morning.
During our time together I asked the following question: "Elder Perry, I will be with approximately 150 BYU-Idaho students tomorrow night in a home evening. Is there anything you would have me teach or convey to those students from you?" He responded without hesitation, "Teach them to live their religion. This is a much different world than it was 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. There is a critical need for leadership in so many places and in so many aspects of today's world, and the Latter-day Saints need to live their religion and provide that leadership. Please teach them to live their religion."
I conveyed Elder Perry's message to the students in that home evening the following night, and I have pondered his answer a great deal since then. My brief message to you this morning as you graduate from Brigham Young University-Idaho is a simple one: Live your religion. In a world that grows increasingly dark because of distrust, cynicism, and unethical behavior, employees at and graduates from Brigham Young University-Idaho must live their religion and radiate the light of the gospel and be an influence for good wherever we may be and in whatever we may do. Please consider Elder Perry's counsel in light of these verses from Matthew 5:13-16:
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Can we see the influence of this campus in the world as graduates armed with both gospel truth and ability assume roles in families, in the Church, in business, in government, in education, and in other spheres of activity? Can we recognize that the world will come to this campus to find young people who can create opportunities and solve problems and teach and discover and innovate--and who will do so from a foundation of moral strength and correct principles? In a world increasingly filled with darkness, the image of Christ in the countenances of graduates from BYU-Idaho will radiate a light that will literally ". . . chase darkness from among you" (Doctrine and Covenants 50:25). Can you students see and feel on this day of graduation that your responsibility is increasing and that
The harvest is great and the lab'rers are few;
But if we're united, we all things can do.
We'll gather the wheat from the midst of the tares
And bring them from bondage, from sorrows and snares.
("Ye Elders of Israel," Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, #319)
Let me also suggest that we must not only live our religion, but we must love living our religion. Adherence to gospel principles and obedience to God's commandments are not drudgery we must somehow suffer through during mortality. Rather, gospel truth and obedience to eternal law are the very source and the very cause of true happiness. As the Prophet Joseph Smith plainly taught:
Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. But we cannot keep all the commandments without first knowing them, and we cannot expect to know all, or more than we now know unless we comply with or keep those we have already received. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Five, 1842-43, p. 255)
And as King Benjamin counseled his people in Mosiah 2:41:
And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
Brothers and sisters, please listen to and heed the counsel I have shared with you from a latter-day apostle and prophet: "Live your religion." You and I must be careful not to let the simplicity of the teaching cause us to "look beyond the mark" and to seek for things that we cannot understand (Jacob 4:14). I testify that as you and I love living our religion we will be blessed, prospered, and strengthened and that we will become evermore effective instruments in the hands of the Lord.
Now, I would like to conclude on a personal note. Sister Bednar and I love you. We have so much enjoyed visiting with you on campus and in your apartments, participating with you in home evenings and eating ice cream together, talking about your challenges and opportunities, answering your questions, and becoming better acquainted. We will miss you. And we would love to hear from you; please be sure to let us know about the things that are happening in your lives.
Today you graduates become official alumni of BYU-Idaho, and you now have the responsibility to help the world better understand who we are and what we do at this remarkable institution. How you live, what you do, and what you become will ultimately define this university. May the Lord bless you as you always remember Him and serve Him with faith and diligence.
As our sons have left our home for college and on missions, Sister Bednar and I have shared with them the following counsel:
• Remember that you represent the Savior. • Remember that you represent your family. • Remember that you represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
And as you now are leaving Brigham Young University-Idaho, may I add one more item to the list?
• Remember that you represent Brigham Young University-Idaho.
I declare my witness that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ. He lives. He is real. He knows each of you. And I testify and promise that He will guide, direct, protect, and strengthen each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.