Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. I want you to know that I count it as one of the grand blessings of my life to be a part of this great institution. I love BYU–Idaho. I embrace its mission. One can’t love this place without having a love and respect for its students, faculty, staff, and administrators. I want to pay particular tribute to president Robert Wilkes, our interim president. Words cannot express the love, gratitude, and admiration I have for him.
You are to be commended for your desire, and your preparation that have made it possible for you to be here. You have been chosen for a marvelous work here on earth. You are among the noble and blessed and in turn will be called upon to serve and strengthen others. It is for this reason that I have felt to talk with you today about the doctrine of Stewardship. Understanding this doctrine will help us to better know our place in God’s eternal plan and what He expects of us, today, tomorrow, and forever.
In the world, stewardship is to hold something in trust for someone else. Centuries ago, stewardship was a means to protect a kingdom while the king was away or otherwise unable to govern because of age or illness.[1]
In the Church and Kingdom of God, we talk of stewardship in sacred terms. Divine gift, hallowed trust, and consecrated service come to mind. This is what our second estate is all about.
Elder Wirthlin said your “most important stewardship is the glorious responsibility your Father in Heaven has given you to watch over and care for your own soul.”[2]
How we see ourselves, and how we care for our own souls are so important, not only to ourselves but also to those who love us. The quality of our efforts to reach out and serve others can generally be measured by how we see and feel about ourselves. For this reason it should not surprise us that the Lord gave us this warning: “Beware concerning yourselves.” [3]
Let me illustrate: Serving as a sealer in the temple, I often see couples standing before the alter gazing into the mirrors on two opposite walls and looking into what appears to be eternity. When asked what they see, they will say something like this, “We see each other, and beyond us we can see forever.” They will often try to move from side to side so they can see without obstruction. They become aware that they themselves are the only obstacles to clearly seeing the things of eternity, meaning the things of God. Thus the warning “Beware concerning yourselves.” [4]
To see means to understand. One of the reasons we come to worship at devotionals such at this is that we might receive His Spirit that we might better see the things of God and understand our role in His great plan of happiness.
Stewardship
Years ago, while conducting a class discussion on stewardship, something remarkable happened. I posed the question, “Who captains your stewardship?” After considerable open, thoughtful, and sometimes invigorating discussion the class was clearly divided. Some answered “the Savior” while others countered by saying, “We are the captains” of our stewardship. The class-time ended without a clear resolution to the question.
The next morning as I entered my office I noticed on my desk a picture painted by Warner E. Sallman, entitled Christ the Pilot. On the back of the picture, one of my students wrote a note that read: “Brother Price, who captains my stewardship? Hopefully it is as the picture indicates.”
Though I had seen the picture many times, it was at that moment that insights flowed into my mind and soul as never before. A thoughtful student’s initiative and the Spirit of the Lord taught me that day. For the next few hours I recorded my thoughts, observation, feeling, scriptures and words of living prophets on the subject of stewardship, while gazing at this picture.
What I’m going to do now is unrehearsed, Just before this devotional I asked Heath Becker if he would be willing to help me. I showed him a copy of this picture and asked him to study it for a few moments and take just a minute to share his observations with us.
Let us review Heth’s observations and add a few from other students. We note that the:
1. Conditions are stormy, not unlike life
2. The speck of blue sky is a ray of hope
3. The Savior is near
4. He is showing (pointing) the way
5. The young man is attentive and alert
6. He appears calm and confident
7. The young man’s hands are on the wheel
8. The Savior’s hand is placed gently on the young man’s shoulder.
The young man seems to understand his stewardship role. He seems willing to receive divine guidance. With our hands on the wheel of stewardship, clearly, we are responsible for what happens.
As we look at this picture, our role as stewards becomes apparent, and our relationship to the savior is defined. The Savior has given us every needful gift, endowment, opportunity, and promise. His gift to us is “infinite” in time, scope, love, and mercy. He has given us all, and withheld nothing.[5]
Consider for a moment these questions. What are your stewardships? Have you thought about them? Have you taken time to identify and list them? Do you understand them? Do you appreciate them? For the sake of this discussion let’s consider our various stewardships by placing them into three categories:
1. Temporary Stewardships
2. Eternal Stewardship Possibilities, and
3. Preparatory Stewardships.
A temporary stewardship could be a calling in the Church, your present status as a student here at BYU-Idaho, and your employment to name just a few.
Your eternal stewardship possibilities would include the covenants you have made. You are a child of God. You have your family connections—you are a son or daughter, brother or sister, husband or wife, cousin, aunt or uncle. For the brethren the priesthood is eternal. Again these are just a few of your eternal stewardship possibilities.
When we talk of preparatory stewardships we speak of stewardships that are not yet ours, but are promised to the faithful.
For those of you that are single you have a stewardship responsibility to prepare yourself to be a husband or wife. If you are married you have a stewardship responsibility to prepare for parenthood. We are to prepare ourselves to serve the Lord and our fellow man. Opportunities, callings and, I might add, blessings come to those who have prepared themselves. “This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God.”[6] Such preparation often takes the form of diligent study, faithful living, and meekly serving. Only after such preparation can we turn to the Lord and say, “Here am I, send me.”[7]
I believe there are five principles that describe, define, and characterize stewardship. These principles when understood and applied will be a guide to us in fulfilling every stewardship responsibility we have or will have in this life. These five stewardship principles are:
1. Love
2. Agency
3. Availability
4. Responsibility, and
5. Accountability.
These five principles, when linked together by the enlightening power and gift of the Holy Ghost, will bring to you and me greater understanding of our possibilities and greater appreciation of our opportunities. I believe the doctrine of stewardship will, by the power of the Holy Ghost and the Grace of God, live within us in everything we do, in our schooling, in our employment, in our service, in our callings, in our friendships, and in our homes.
The first principle is love.
President Ezra Taft Benson said of love and stewardship:
"Under true stewardship, there is no room for vain ambition, pettiness, or status seeking. One’s ambition is to serve the Lord and His kingdom first. Carelessness, mediocrity, feigned effort, or inconsistent performance have no place where true stewardship is manifest. Love is the motivating force–love for God and love for others."[8]
You will note that the emphasis is on love of God and love for others, not love of power or love of things, nor is it a selfish self-centeredness. We misuse and compromise our stewardships when we love self more than others and love things more than God.[9]
Setbacks in life will separate the humble and meek servants from the selfish power seekers. Shakespeare’s King Richard III noted for his self-centeredness and inhumanity had such a setback when he found himself dismounted on the battlefield. He cried out “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” At that moment, he would gladly give up all his wealth and power just to save his life.[10]
In the Book of Mormon, Lamoni’s father, the king, faced a similar issue when:
"Ammon raised his sword, and said unto him: Behold, I will smite thee except thou wilt grant unto me that my brethren may be cast out of prison.
"Now the king, fearing he should lose his life, said: If thou wilt spare me I will grant unto thee whatsoever thou wilt ask, even to half of the kingdom."[11]
Sometime later, after “Aaron had expounded” the gospel to this same king, “the king asked: What shall I do that I may have this eternal life of which thou hast spoken? . . . Behold, said he, I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy.”[12]
Something extraordinary happens when our love turns to God and away from things of the world? The worldly King offered ½ of his kingdom for his life while the converted King offered all that he possessed for fellowship in the Kingdom of God.
In Elder Russell M. Nelson own voice let’s listen to what he said about loving and caring: “As beneficiaries of the divine creation, what shall we do? We should care for the earth. Be wise stewards over it. And we are to love and care for one another.”[13]
I believe that any capacity we have to love comes to us as a gift from God. The Savior taught and showed us the way. He said, “Love one another; as I have loved you.”[14] He admonished us to “Press forward with . . . a love of God and of all men.”[15]
This principle of love is beautifully and simply expressed by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “Only the Pure Love of Christ will see us through . . . His pure love never fails us. Not now, not ever, not ever.” [16]
Love unshared or unexpressed is love lost. “I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me.” [17]
The second principle is agency.
Without agency we could have “no joy” and we could do “no good.”[18] In other words: “If we cannot say no, then saying yes has no meaning.”[19] The phrase “free agency” does not appear in scripture. The only agency spoken of there is “moral agency.”[20] A faithful steward will always apply their agency in such a way as to be in harmony with the mind and will of the Lord.
Listen carefully to the voice of Elder Richard G. Scott as he teaches the inspired principle of agency:
"Your agency, the right to make choices, is not given so that you can get what you want. This divine gift is provided so that you will choose what your Father in Heaven wants for you. That way He can lead you to become all that He intends you to be. That path leads to glorious joy and happiness."[21]
Elder Neal A. Maxwell helps us to understand agency and the process of becoming disciples:
"If we choose the course of steady improvement, which is clearly the course of discipleship, we will become more righteous and can move from what may be initially a mere
1) acknowledgment of Jesus on to
2) admiration of Jesus, and then on to
3) adoration of Jesus, and finally to
4) emulation of Jesus"[22]
Sometimes in the process of choosing to improve and become more like the Savior we are tempted to misuse the gifts and powers we possess. Stewardship not only affects the use of power, but it also confronts the way we hold privilege. If we use the gifts and power within us to fulfill our God given stewardship responsibilities, we must let go of personal distinction, glory, and titles. We must forgo the idea that we should be waited upon.
The Lord counseled:
"Behold, there are many called but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
"Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson—
"That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness."[23]
Please listen to the words of the poem Invictus by William Earnest Henley. Elder Dallin H. Oaks will give a brief introduction followed by President James E. Faust’s reading of the Poem:
Invictus by William Earnest Henley
“In his famous poem Invictus, William Ernest Henley hurled man’s challenge against Fate, With head ‘bloody, but unbowed’ determined man is unconquerable” (Elder Dallin H. Oaks).
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever Gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fall clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced or cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance,
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.
“Under the bludgeonings of chance, my head is bloody, but unbowed.” Here is a response by Elder Orson F. Whitney given by President Gordon B. Hinckley:
"It is a great poem. It places upon the individual the responsibility for what he does with his life . . . But on the other hand, it may sound arrogant and conceited in terms of the Atonement. Orson F. Whitney, of the Quorum of the Twelve of many years ago, so regarded it and wrote a marvelous response using the same poetic meter and entitling his verse ‘The Soul’s Captain.’ I repeat three of the verses from his writing."
Souls Captain:
Art thou in truth? Then what of Him Who bought thee with his blood?
Who plunged into devouring seas and snatched thee from the flood? . . .
Free will is thine–free agency,
To wield for right or wrong;
But thou must answer unto Him
To whom all souls belong.
Bend to the dust that ‘head unbowed,’
Small part of life’s great whole!
And see in Him, and Him alone,
The captain of thy soul.
Agency when used in righteousness is exalting. Abuse it— and we lose it to life’s addictions.
The next Principle of Stewardship is availability.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell shared this insight on the subject:
"God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability!"[24]
"God gives the picks and shovels to the chosen . . . They may not be the best or most capable, but they are the most available."[25]
This suggests also that our willingness to go where He wants us to go, sometimes implies a willingness to stay right where we are if that’s where the Lord wants us.[26]
President Thomas S. Monson taught this principle when he shared with us this verse:
"Father, where shall I work today?
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then he pointed out a tiny spot– and said, ‘Tend that for me.'
I answered quickly, 'Oh no, not that.'
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done.
Not that little place for me.
And the word he spoke, it was not stern;
He answered me tenderly:
Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;
Art thou working for them or for me?
Nazareth was a little place, –
And so was Galilee (Mead MacGuire)."[27]
Now ponder the words of Elder Neal A. Maxwell as he taught this same principle:
"The Lord knows our circumstances and the intents of our hearts, and surely the talents and gifts He has given us. He is able to gage perfectly how we have performed within what is allotted to us, including by lifting up some of the many surrounding hands that hang down. Thus yearning for expanded opportunities while failing to use those at hand, is bad form spiritually"[28]
We, like Alma, “ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto [us].” [29] Alma asked, “Why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called . . . And this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God.”[30]
Again, it is not all about your ability, but your availability. Prove your dependability and the Lord has promised you increased capability!
In summary we have learned that as faithful stewards we are motivated by a love of God and are free to choose to make ourselves available to serve.
The next principle is responsibility.
We alone are responsible for what we choose to love and to what cause we make ourselves available. President James E. Faust said:
"Each of us must take the responsibility for the moral decisions we make in life about how close we live to the edge. Lehi states: 'And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon' (2 Nephi 2:26). Being acted upon means somebody else is pulling the strings."[31]
Look at the painting once more. Is “somebody else pulling the strings?” President Hugh B. Brown explained the principle of responsibility this way:
"Freedom to choose involves responsibility for choice just as privileges and rights involve duties and obligations . . . If man is to be the master of his fate and if he strives for a high destiny, he must assume moral responsibility, engage in moral struggle, and exercise moral faith."[32]
The last principle of stewardship is accountability.
I love the way President Hinckley teaches. Rather than preaching and telling us what we should be doing he humbly talks in first person and shares with us the things that he strives for, hopes for, and the things he tries so hard to do. Listen to his voice as he shepherds us to an understanding of accountability:
"We are answerable to Him in this life, and will be held accountable when we are called before Him to make our report. I hope that we shall not be found wanting. I hope that when that time comes, I may have the opportunity of standing before my Beloved Savior to give an accounting of my stewardship, and that I may be able to do so without embarrassment, or apology, or excuse. I have so tried to conduct my life."[33]
Remember, “It is required of the Lord, at the hand of every steward, to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and in eternity.”[34]
Our accountability can validate our agency and confirm our responsibility. “Free will is thine–free agency, To wield for right or wrong; But thou must answer unto Him To whom all souls belong.”[35]
In conclusion, I share with you the words of Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “I thank Jesus . . . for his marvelous management of time, for never misusing a moment, . . . Even his seconds showed his stewardship.”[36]
As we seek to understand and fulfill our stewardships, I pray that we will be
- Motivated by Love.
- Free to Choose.
- Available to Serve.
- Responsible to Act, and
- Accountable to God.
Brothers and sisters, as I said in my opening, you have been chosen for a marvelous work here on earth. You are among the noble and blessed. You have been called upon to “build up the kingdom of God.”[37] Elder Neal A. Maxwell said: “By divine appointment, these are [our] days (Helaman 7:9) . . . Moreover, though we live in a failing world, we have not been sent here to fail.”[38]
Indeed, our individual stewardships come to us by “divine appointment” and “we have not been sent here to fail.” Our success and happiness will come in living these principles of stewardship. Our strength to do so will come through the enabling powers of the Atonement of our Lord and Savior. This testimony I share with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Peter Block, Stewardship, Preface
[2] An Eternal Stewardship, by Joseph B. Wirthlin, Ensign, May 1997, True To The Faith
[3] Doctrine and Covenants 84:43, emphasis added
[4] Ibid
[5] 2 Nephi 9:7
[6] Alma 34:32
[7] 2 Nephi 16:8
[8] The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 381, emphasis added
[9] Alma 11:24
[10] Peter Block, Stewardship, p 1, emphasis added
[11] Alma 20:22-23, emphasis added
[12] Alma 22:15, emphasis added
[13] Elder Nelson, “The Creation,” Ensign, May 2000, 84
[14] John 13:34
[15] 2 Nephi 31:20
[16] Elder Jeffrey R. Holland “He Loved Us Unto the End, Ensign, November 1989, 25, emphasis added
[17] Hymn 193, emphasis added
[18] 2 Nephi 2:23
[19] Peter Block, Stewardship, p 30
[20] Doctrine and Covenants 101:78
[21] Richard G. Scott, “Finding Joy in Life,” Ensign, May 1996, 24
[22] Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “The Glorious Atonement,” Missionary Satellite Broadcast, 29 August 1999
[23] Doctrine and Covenants 121:34-36
[24] Neal A. Maxwell, “It’s Service, Not Status, That Counts,” Ensign, July 1975, emphasis added
[25] Neal A. Maxwell, “Deposition of a Disciple” p 54
[26] Credited to Neal A. Maxwell
[27] Elder Thomas S. Monson, Yellow Canaries with Gray on Their Wings,General Conference, April 7, 1973
[28] Neal A. Maxwell, “Content with the Things Allotted unto Us,” Ensign, May 2000, 72
[29] Alma 29:3
[30] Alma 29:6,9
[31] James E. Faust, Acting for Ourselves and Not Being Acted Upon, Ensign, Nov. 1995, 45
[32] Hugh B. Brown, The Eternal Quest, p.64,65
[33] Gordon B. Hinckley, “In . . . Counselors There Is Safety,” Ensign, Nov. 1990, 48
[34] Doctrine and Covenants 72:3
[35] Elder Orson F. Whitney, “Soul’s Captain”
[36] Neal A. Maxwell, “Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King,” Ensign, May 1976, 26
[37] JST Matthew 6:38
[38] Neal A. Maxwell, “Encircled in the Arms of His Love,” p 17,18