In 2012, my husband and I were on a small tropical island in the Caribbean. Pretty much every single promotional piece about this island touts a picture of a natural rock bridge that spans 100 feet and is chiseled out from the ocean waves crashing against the rocky cliff shore. We were trying to be classic tourists, so we decided we had better go see it, but since it was on the other side of the island, we had to rent a car to get to it. When we were at the rental car place, we told the agent that we were going to go see the natural bridge. Our GPSs didn't work very well on the island, so he kindly showed us where it was on a map and the best way to get there. As we made our way across the island, we noticed several signs pointing the way, so we knew we were on the right track. We also had a tourist book with us in the car, and I began to read aloud the history of this landmark we were about to see. At the exact moment we pulled into the crowded parking lot at the site, I read these words from the book: "Unfortunately, the natural bridge collapsed on September 2, 2005." We looked at each other in disbelief! What? It's not even here anymore? We got out of the car, and sure enough, there was no natural bridge. We were so confused! All the advertisements, the rental car agent, the road signs, and most of the tourist book led us to see this landmark. Apparently we were trusting things that weren't trustworthy.
What makes us trust people or things or ideas? Is it because everyone else trusts them? Is it because they look sure or dependable or experienced? As I have thought about trust, I've come to realize that it's a strong indicator for the basis of the decisions we make that eventually set the course for our lives. Every relationship we form, every activity we participate in, every decision we make, large or small, is closely correlated with who or what we trust. My question for you today is this: who or what are you trusting? What have you tethered yourself to that guides you? Is it the popular and attractive ideas that bombard you from every direction? A trend or fashion or prominent thinking that has caught your eye but won't withstand the test of time because it is shallow and dangerous?[1] Are you thinking of the countless others that will one day be affected by what you have chosen to trust?
I want to show you something I did that caused me to think very seriously about trust.
Two Christmases ago, our son Andy gave me a gift he really wanted me to experience. He gave me one skydiving jump. So on Labor Day, he and I headed to Moab, Utah, to board a tiny yet perfectly good airplane, each harnessed to a tandem buddy, and 10,000 feet later, we each jumped out of that perfectly good airplane. I learned a lot about trust that day.
What Are You Tethered To?
Whom or what do you have your life strapped to? Whom or what are you trusting with your life? Are you trusting your doubts? Are you trusting the Internet? Are you trusting what disgruntled or critical people say?
In a tumultuous world of ever-increasing attacks on what is good and right, where people can so easily "just put their ideas out there," regardless of whether they are true or not, those ideas are heard by many, and it becomes very easy to get distracted and follow what you think sounds good. I know you want to make good choices because so much of your future depends on the decisions you make now. When you get right down to it, those decisions all depend on what you are trusting.
I want you to know that following anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ will lead you to dead ends, severe consequences, and unhappiness. You can trick yourself into thinking that following something or someone else is okay because you haven't yet arrived at the consequences of your choices, or maybe you've hardened your heart to the point that you aren't noticing what you're headed for. With agency, you are welcome to go down that path. But the sooner you turn around, correct your ways, and trust the Savior, the happier you'll be. Never once has someone gone down the wrong path and the Savior has said, "Don't come back."[2]
The prophets will never lead you astray. The word of God will never lead you astray.
So many people, many of whom you have not yet met, are depending on you to make good choices.
While it's true that, as President Thomas S. Monson says, our decisions determine our destiny,[3] I have also come to know that what we choose to trust in our decisions affects countless other people's destinies, many we cannot foresee.
For instance, when my father-in-law was a college freshman at a Baptist university on a football scholarship, he dislocated both of his shoulders during practice days before the first game of the season. Knowing he would have to sit the season out because of his injuries, he chose to quit the team and turn in his scholarship. The coaches assured him they still had a spot for him and he didn't have to relinquish the scholarship, but he insisted, saying it was the right thing to do. This changed the trajectory of his life, and rather than going to college to become a Baptist minister, he chose a different path, which eventually led him to the gospel and baptism into the Church. If not for his decision to turn in his scholarship, his life would have unfolded in a completely different way, including the fact that I wouldn't have met his son at BYU, and I probably wouldn't even be living in Idaho! I am forever grateful for the trust in God displayed by my father-in-law, whom I didn't even meet until 52 years after he turned in that scholarship. I'm sure when he made this decision, he did not have the Mormon church or me in mind.
Because we hardly realize when we are about to make a choice that will have true, lasting value, we need to be sure that we have developed good habits, because those are what we will naturally defer to when decisions are made. This is especially true for the small choices.
One year ago, Elder and Sister David A. Bednar came to campus to speak at the devotional, and it was my job to assist in hosting them. They had a packed schedule from sun up to sun down, and I had to be on top of keeping things moving along so the day wouldn't fall apart. Each time I told Elder Bednar that we needed to be heading to the next event, his response was always, "Let's go to church!" It was a Tuesday; we obviously weren't going to church, but that was his enthusiastic reaction every time. At the end of the day, I told him that "Let's go to church" was one of the things I was going to remember about his visit. He said, "I like to go to church." It was clear to me that cheerfully going to church is a habit for him, one that he associates with any gospel-affiliated activity (which for an Apostle is basically everything).
What habits have you developed that help you make good choices?
I have seen blessings in my life as I have created good habits, such as the habit of prayer. One of the blessings of this is that I feel confident that I can trust my Heavenly Father because we have established a relationship with each other. He knows He can trust me, and I know I can trust Him to give me the help and challenges I need.
Last August, the night before our family was going out of town for a week, I thought I'd mow the lawn really quickly so it wouldn't be too unruly when we got home. I hardly ever mow the lawn (I was just trying to be helpful), and in my haste (and inexperience), I hit a sprinkler head, and it broke off of its pipe. Nobody else was home, and this needed to be fixed before we left early the next morning. I tried everything I knew, but I only made it worse. When it was almost dark, our son Tanner got home, and he and I worked on it together. Several times we thought we had fixed it, but then we'd test it, and it would sprout into a geyser and fall apart. After about the fifth attempt, covered with water and mud, we said a prayer, and the sprinkler worked.
Now you could say that it would have worked even if we hadn't prayed, but what I know is that good habits have led me to do things that give me otherwise overlooked opportunities to trust Heavenly Father so He can see if I will trust Him.
Think about your choice to come to devotional today. Why did you choose to come? Whether it was to take a break from homework, to be uplifted, to gather with other students who share similar values as you, or to just warm up on your way home, it was a small choice that is changing you little by little and is evidence of what you trust. You can easily make weekly devotional attendance a positive pattern in your life. Surround yourself with people you can trust to exemplify good habits. At this sacred and set-apart place that is BYU-Idaho, you have access to unparalleled spiritual resources that can assist in developing and deepening your devotion.[4] You would do well to take advantage of these while you are here, in this stronghold of the Church.
Three Categories of Trust
While habits are tools we use when we make choices, they aren't necessarily the basis for why we do what we do. We have to go a little deeper to see what our decisions are based on, what we trust, and what we have tethered ourselves to. I want to discuss three main categories of opposite sources of trust. Think of which of these opposing ideas you have used as the basis for your choices. What have you tethered yourself to, and, more importantly, what do you need to tether yourself to?
Faith or Doubts
The first category of trust is either our faith or our doubts.
We all have faith in some things and doubts about other things. Most decisions require us to move forward in faith, not really knowing beforehand the things we should do.[5] Faith is just that: not knowing or being able to see, but doing because we know it's right and we have hope and trust in a power higher than our own.[6] If you have doubts about certain choices, that's a big red flag to hold off until you're confident you're doing the right thing and can move forward in faith.
During the Savior's life, He taught some principles that He knew several of those listening did not believe.[7] These disciples left and "walked no more with him."[8]
"Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou are that Christ, the Son of the living God."[9]
Speaking of this incident, Elder M. Russell Ballard said, "In that moment, when others focused on what they could not accept, the Apostles chose to focus on what they did believe and know, and as a result, they remained with Christ." Elder Ballard went on to say that today is no different. For some, it's difficult to understand certain Church doctrines. Others struggle with concerns over the history of the restoration of the gospel or being a member of a church that requires so much or a number of other doubts and questions.
Any doubts like these are what you should be questioning before you question what you know to be the truth. Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, "We should not assume ... that just because something is unexplainable by us it is unexplainable."[10] This is where faith comes in. Faith is to "hope for things which are not seen, which are true."[11]
It's easy to get distracted. Our decisions show where our faith is placed and what we doubt. I love the lesson about distractions learned by Susan W. Tanner, former Young Women general president, as she was putting together the book Daughters in My Kingdom for the Church.
After spending months in a study cubicle in the BYU library researching and writing, she got really stumped and didn't know what to do next. She says she doesn't normally have dreams that mean much of anything, but one night she had a dream where she was on a hike, and the person she was following turned a corner, and she couldn't see where he went. She tried to continue on the path, but she found herself lost in an amusement park with four walls around her (study cubicle). While she could see over the walls to where she needed to be, she couldn't see a way out of the amusement park. When she woke up, she wondered if that dream was not only symbolic of the distractions and amusements of the world encroaching on her spirit but on all of our spirits as we choose what to pay attention to and what to ignore in our lives.[12]
This reminds me of the words in a beloved hymn that say, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." But then follows the resolute voice of surrendering one's will: "Here's my heart, oh take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above."[13]
Don't let distractions make you doubt what is right. Make sure that what you desire will allow you to bind your heart to His.[14] He can see ahead and around corners. We just need to trust Him.[15]
"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."[16]
Sacrifice or No Sacrifice
The next opposing foundational category of decision making is whether you are trusting the route that requires you to sacrifice or the route that requires no sacrifice.
I am being very careful here to not call the route that requires no sacrifice the "easy route." The reason I need to be so precise is that I firmly believe that living the gospel is the easiest way through life, but that doesn't mean it's easy. In fact, it does require sacrifice.
I had the sweetest conversation with a woman our missionary son had the privilege to teach the sweet gospel message to last year. She was excited to have found the saving truths she had been taught, and the relief of taking this step in her life was evident in her voice. I was genuinely thrilled for her, but I felt impressed to tell her that while, yes, joining the Church is probably the best choice she has made in her whole life, she needs to be aware that it's not going to necessarily make her life easy all of a sudden. If it's easy, it's not really worth it. Said another way, "A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation."[17] You have experienced this in a different realm as you have noticed that your favorite classes are the ones that have required you to think a little harder and dig a little deeper.
The Savior never said everything will be easy if we follow Him, but He does promise rest if we yoke ourselves to Him by coupling ourselves with His teachings and attaching ourselves to His commandments.[18] Discarding the teachings of Jesus Christ, giving in to personal weaknesses, or staying away from challenges is never the best path to take. It might seem easier, but if it doesn't require a sacrifice on our part, it's not worth it.
Think of the things Satan would have us allow into our lives: pride, addiction, dishonesty, sin. Yoking ourselves to these snares will bring us misery and stop our progress.[19] For the most part, they require very little effort from us.
I repeat, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."[20]
In 1962, United States President John F. Kennedy spoke at Rice University in Houston, Texas and pointed out why it is good to do challenging things when he said, "We choose to go to the Moon! ... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win .."
Doing hard, challenging things gives us a way to measure how much we are willing to sacrifice. In your faith and in your schoolwork, don't shirk away from being challenged.
Most solid decisions require sacrifice. One tool to help us combat the temptations of the adversary is sacrifice. What have you done lately that feels like a sacrifice? Maybe it's difficult for you to take the time to do the prime things (those things that some people call "Primary answers" but that I think are prime to our progress). Maybe you could sacrifice a little sleep to do those prime things! Is it hard for you to hold your tongue when others are speaking ill of someone behind their back? Put your comments on the sacrificial altar and see if that makes you feel stronger in thwarting the temptations of the adversary. "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven."[21]
I'd like to share the experience of one young couple who were married shortly after they each returned home from their missions. In their case, keeping the commandments went against all logic and reason and required tremendous sacrifice on their part.
When they were 26 years old, the husband graduated from college with a degree in agriculture, and with their two little children, they moved home to manage the 500-acre family farm.
The crops were doing very well, and in August they had the prospect of an excellent harvest, so they borrowed $65,000 and purchased 400 head of yearling calves. They knew this was a good investment because of the profit they would make from selling the calves after feeding them from this bounteous harvest. Several of the other farming families in the community also borrowed money to purchase calves.
Normally they begin harvesting in this part of the country at the beginning of September, and the date of the first snowfall is around September 20. On September 1, they were ready to harvest, and it began to rain. It rained all week and began to dry out at the end of the week. On Sunday it was dry enough to start harvesting, but since it was Sunday, they delayed until Monday. On Monday it started raining again, rained all week, and began to dry out by Sunday. This continued for three weeks, and the window of time to harvest was almost closed. Each Sunday they would go to church in this farming community, and the bishop would remind the ward members that the Lord would bless them if they would honor His day, but it was still hard to see their neighbors harvesting on Sunday.
In late September, all of their crops went under the snow, and they tried to harvest in areas where the snow was not very deep, but it was useless.
Meanwhile, their yearling calves needed feed, but there was none. About Christmas time, they were forced to sell them and made a meager profit from the small weight gain.
So with a college degree in hand, the husband had to find odd jobs to provide for his family.
The first week of January, hoof and mouth disease broke out in the area, which is a very serious and infectious disease in cattle. As a result, the price of beef cattle dropped overnight from 40 cents/pound to 11 cents/pound. This was a devastating financial blow to those who had harvested their crops on Sundays and had sufficient feed to keep their cattle. The young family that had kept the Sabbath day holy and were forced to sell their cattle for a small profit suffered very little financially.
Twelve years later, this couple welcomed me to their family as their youngest child. I'm sure, during that harvest season, my parents didn't realize the impact their choices would have on their entire life nor that there was a higher purpose to that experience that has shaped the lives of their children, grandchildren, and a never-ending posterity.
I wonder what decisions you are making during your "decade of decision,"[22] the decade to which you will be able to pinpoint the direction your life will go.
I warn you to not simplify your life so much that you eliminate the important things. Sometimes we think if we could just get rid of some of the pressures that seem to take so much extra time, energy, and discipline, life would be so much easier. And so we start to pare down and eliminate and simplify. Have you simplified the important things right out of your life, the things that could be your best tools for making good choices that will affect you and your posterity? Don't be afraid to invest in things that seem inconvenient but that are actually imperative to your progress.[23] Start today, and start small. Don't expect everything in your life to be perfect because you more fully incorporated the Savior into your life, but do expect things to be better as you consistently tether yourself to Christ.
God's Plan or Philosophies of the World
The last area of opposites I want to discuss is whether our decisions have us tethered to God's plan or to the philosophies of the world.
I wholeheartedly agree with Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson, who says, "If it is the Lord's plan, it should also be our plan!"[24]
An essential element to His plan is agency.[25] The intention of agency is oft misunderstood. We tend to think agency means we can do whatever we want. That is mixed up!
Agency was intended for us to prove ourselves during our life on earth while we are away from our Heavenly Father, to see if we would do everything He taught us. Agency is not for us to do whatever we want to do and not do whatever we don't want to do. Are you using your gift of agency the way it was intended to be used? What if you knitted a sweater for me for my birthday and a few weeks later saw me using a piece of that sweater as a rag to mop the floor? Would you think to yourself, "Wow, I'm so glad she's using that sweater in a way that works for her! I thought she would wear it, but if this is the way she wants to use it, great!"? I'm pretty sure that's not what you would be thinking. Are you using agency the way it was intended to be used?
Heavenly Father gave us agency not because He doesn't care, and not because He wants us to choose whatever we want, but because He wants us to be able to prove ourselves while we are away from Him. Our success is His work and His glory. He wants us to trust Him, and, more importantly, we should want Him to trust us.[26]
Every decision we make either leads us closer to the Savior or away from Him. On which side of that line are your choices putting you? If they are taking you away from the Savior, His gospel, His teachings, and all He represents, I encourage you to start making choices that will bring you closer to Him. Start with the small choices.
The world would have you think that the most important things to seek after are the enticing, the exciting, and the fun; that your success and happiness depend on what you can do on your own without asking God for help; that there is no need for a Savior or repentance; that families aren't the basis for His plan to help us become who He wants us to be; and that making covenants is restrictive and unnecessary. Those are all lies, and you know none of those things are true. Do not trust things that aren't true.
When all is said and done, so many things come down to what you trust. What do you need to change in your life to more fully trust God and tether yourself to Him? Trust your faith. Trust making decisions that require some sacrifice. Trust in God's plan. He is the source of truth. He who created the entire universe can be trusted in every decision you make. Tether yourself to Him with heavy-duty carabineers because He is the tandem buddy that your life depends on. "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."[27] "His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come."[28] In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Boyd K. Packer, "The Relief Society," Ensign, October 1978
[2] Testimony of Bo Brusco, Dec. 4, 2016, Rexburg YSA 29th Ward sacrament meeting. Used with permission
[3] Thomas S. Monson, "Decisions Determine Destiny," New Era, November 1979
[4] David A. Bednar, "Brigham Young University-Idaho: A Disciple Preparation Center," BYU-Idaho Devotional, Aug. 31, 2004
[5] 1 Nephi 4:6
[6] Hebrews 11:1
[7] John 6:64
[8] John 6:66
[9] John 6:67-69
[10] Neal A. Maxwell, Not My Will, But Thine (1988), 124. As quoted by M. Russell Ballard, "To Whom Shall We Go," Ensign, November 2016
[11] Alma 32:21
[12] "A Worldwide Sisterhood," LDS Church News, Sept. 3, 2011. http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/61370/A-worldwide-sisterhood.html
[13] "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," Hymns, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 70
[14] Ibid
[15] Jacob Olson
[16] Proverbs 3:5
[17] Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith 6:7
[18] Matthew 11:28
[19] Dennis H. Leavitt and Richard O. Christensen, Scripture Study for Latter-Day Saint Families: The New Testament, 2006, 22
[20] Proverbs 3:5
[21] "Praise to the Man," Hymns, no. 27
[22] Robert D. Hales, "To the Aaronic Priesthood: Preparing for the Decade of Decision," Ensign, May 2007
[23] Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Inconvenient Messiah," BYU Devotional, Feb. 27, 1982
[24] Bonnie L. Oscarson, "Defenders of the Family Proclamation," Ensign, May 2015
[25] Robert D. Hales, "Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life," Ensign, November 2010
[26] Andy Gannaway
[27] Proverbs 3:6
[28] "The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles," Ensign, April 2000, 2