I greet you today in the spirit of love. I greet you as one who loves learning and particularly as one who loves the learning associated with institutions of higher education. I have a great love for President and Sister Clark and for those who serve with them in administering the affairs of this marvelous and unique university. I love you faculty members who have given your lives to the profession of teaching and learning and also those of you many staff members who provide the multitude of services that make teaching and learning possible here at Brigham Young University Idaho. And, quite particularly, I love you students. It was my love for students like you fifty years ago that led to my decision to pursue a career in higher education administration. You are the reason this institution exists. You are the reason your leaders lead, your teachers teach, and the service staff serves. I love this institution, but most of all, I love with all my heart a graduate of this institution. I am strengthened today, as always, by the presence of my wife, Janeil, who graduated from Ricks College, shall we say, just a few years ago. We are honored to be in your presence today.
I began my remarks greeting you as one who loves learning. I do love learning--the learning of both temporal and spiritual truths. I invite you to think with me today about a topic I have chosen to call: "The Divine Law of Learning." The Lord said:
And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.[1]
You could not ask for a better environment to be taught and to seek learning by both study and faith than you have here at BYU Idaho. Do all you can to develop your skills and your personal discipline to learn by study; and study harder, longer, and in more depth than you have ever studied before in your life. However, do not miss the great opportunity you have to develop and learn through your faith as well. Increase and exercise your faith; and the Spirit will teach you as you study, as you pray, as you ponder, as you sit in class, and even as you sleep.
I hope each of you loves learning and that you will not only learn by study and by faith but by every experience you have in life. If you do not feel a sense of urgency--an excitement and love for learning now, strive for it, work at it, and never give up on it, until you feel it in every fiber of your being. Think of learning as one of the very most important endeavors of your life.
Brigham Young gave us an enlightened perspective on the eternal nature of learning when he said:
I shall not cease learning while I live, nor when I arrive in the spirit world; but shall there learn with greater facility; and when I again receive my body, I shall learn a thousand times more in a thousand times less time; and then I do not mean to cease learning, but shall still continue my researches.[2]
Learning is one of the most basic laws of God. This was made very clear when the Lord said: "The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake the evil one."[3] This would surely suggest that learning is of very high priority with our Heavenly Father. We read in the Doctrine and Covenants:
Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.[4]
Learning was also a part of our pre-mortal existence. We made choices there based on what we had come to know--on what we had learned. And, at the very beginning of time, as we know it, the Lord taught Adam and Eve basic principles of life and salvation and then said: "Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children."[5] It was imperative that Adam and Eve's children learn what Adam and Eve had learned. And so the pattern continues and will continue through time and eternity.
Consider a few additional scriptural references. We read in the Proverbs of King Solomon:
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.[6]
And "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding."[7] And the Savior said: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."[8] He also said: "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."[9]
The Lord instructed the Prophet Joseph Smith:
And now, behold, I give unto you a commandment, that when ye are assembled together ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know how to act and direct my church . . .[10]
Further, the Lord said:
And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom. Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand.[11]
President Gordon B. Hinckley said:
Get all the education you can . . . Cultivate skills of mind and hands. Education is the key to opportunity. The Lord has placed upon you, as members of this Church, the obligation to study and to learn of things spiritual, yes, but of things temporal also. Acquire all of the education that you can, even if it means great sacrifice while you are young. You will bless the lives of your children. You will bless the Church because you will reflect honor to this work.[12]
Some of you may be here because of what you have read regarding education in the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet. Let me quote just a few lines:
Education is an important part of Heavenly Father's plan to help you become more like Him. He wants you to educate your mind and to develop your skills and talents, your power to act well in your responsibilities, and your capacity to appreciate life. The education you gain will be valuable to you during mortality and in the life to come. Education will prepare you for greater service in the world and in the Church. It will help you better provide for yourself, your family, and those in need.[13]
That learning is important cannot be questioned, but I offer now a cautionary note of scriptural origin. The words will be familiar to you. They are found in 2 Nephi chapter 9 where Jacob, brother of Nephi, teaches marvelous truths pertaining to the Father's Plan and the Atonement of Jesus Christ and then gives this crucial counsel and caution:
O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.[14]
I draw your attention--eyes, ears, mind, and heart--to both parts of that last sentence. "But to be learned is good, if they hearken unto the counsels of God."
To be learned is good, but we cannot ignore that huge and all-important qualifying "if" that follows--if they (meaning you and me) hearken unto the counsels of God. Do you see the relationship here to learning by study and by faith? We can become learned by study. But if we have not hearkened unto the counsels of God, our faith is either vain or entirely absent. If such were to be the case, all of our "getting" as referred to by King Solomon would be limited to knowledge alone, with neither wisdom nor understanding being acquired.
Nephi taught:
For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.[15]
So what are the counsels of God to which we must hearken for learning to be good? We could cite many references, but the Lord's counsel to the Prophet Joseph will do for now. He said:
Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another.[16]
What then are the counsels of God? To study, pray, believe, be obedient, keep our covenants, walk uprightly, and live worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost!
The university will be your partner by providing an environment conducive to learning--an environment that should inspire you with an excitement and desire to continue learning throughout your life. The faculty and others will assist you. They will facilitate your learning and equip you with information, skills, and learning resources; but you must take responsibility for your own learning. It is to be anticipated that each of you will complete the work that you have begun--that you will qualify for the degree or certificate that you have chosen or will yet choose to pursue. That degree or certificate, however, should not be the end objective of your pursuit, just as a good grade should not be the ultimate objective of a particular course. Even learning itself must not be your ultimate objective. It is not learning for learning's sake that matters. It is what your learning produces. What you become as a person will be the ultimate measure of your learning success.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks said:
The ultimate goal of an education is to make us better parents and servants in the kingdom. In the long run it is the growth, knowledge, and wisdom we achieve that enlarges our souls and prepares us for eternity . . . Education is a gift from God; it is a cornerstone of our religion when we use it to benefit others. Learning with the Spirit is not confined to classrooms or preparation for school examinations. It applies to everything we do in life and every place we do it--at home, at work, and at church. An education is not limited to formal study. Lifelong learning can increase our ability to appreciate and relish the workings and beauty of the world around us.[17]
Now, let's think more deeply about what I referred to earlier as "The Divine Law of Learning" remembering that it is not what we know that matters, but what we become. The object of learning is not knowledge alone, but the wisdom to make positive personal change in our lives--each of us using what we have come to know to become, step by step, the kind of person Our Heavenly Father would want us to be.
Think about learning, what it means, and its progressive levels of development. Again, the Lord made it clear that the glory of God is intelligence. Intelligence is more than being smart--more than having a high IQ. Let us think of intelligence at the highest levels of learning and being divinely and directly associated with the "Glory of God." The first step in "The Divine Law of Learning" is "Knowledge." If our learning, however, results only in the acquisition of knowledge, we have fallen short. Knowledge merely answers the question: "What is it?" Our learning must progress beyond knowledge to "Understanding." We must come to understand that which we have come to know. Understanding answers the question: "What does it mean?" Once we have come to understand thoroughly the meaning of the knowledge we have acquired, our learning must then progress to "Belief." To come to believe that which we have come to understand brings our learning to a more personal level as it answers the question: "What does it mean to me?"
I must interject a qualifying comment here. During the course of your life and learning you will be exposed to ideas and theories that may be presented and promoted as established truth. Some of these ideas and theories will be important for you to know and to understand, but you will wisely consider them only as interesting--even intriguing--information, knowing that they have not been established as either temporal or spiritual truth; and they will mean little or nothing to you in terms of what you come to believe.
Now, once we have come to know, understand, and believe new truths, our beliefs then become meaningful only as we take the necessary "Action" to apply in our daily lives what we have come to believe. This then, of course, answers the question: "What am I going to do because of it?" Or, in other words: "What am I going to do about what I have come to know, understand, and believe?" This action should then produce in us the "Wisdom" to make positive personal change in our lives, answering the question: "What have I become because of it?" Do you see how knowledge must progress to understanding, then to belief and action, progressing to the wisdom necessary to make positive personal change in our lives?
Now, some of you are thinking that not everything that you come to know, understand, and believe has application to your life and that there is nothing about that particular body of knowledge that would or should produce any change in your life. It may be some mathematical concept, a chemical equation, or some abstract thought. You may be right; it may not have practical application to your life; but no matter what you study, move what you learn as far up in "The Divine Law of Learning" as you possibly can, never being satisfied with merely acquiring knowledge. You can pass an exam with knowledge. That is not enough! No matter what the subject, your objective should never be a course taken and grade received--never to be bothered with that subject again.
We learn much from King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon. After teaching his people the gospel and the requirements of salvation, he said: ". . . and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them."[18] King Benjamin then wanted to know if his people really believed what he had said to them. I think he wanted to know if they had come to "know," "understand," and "believe" what they had been taught. Listen to what he learned:
And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.[19]
King Benjamin's people were prepared to act upon what they had learned and to make positive change in their lives--to become what the Lord desired of them.
Let's look again at "The Divine Law of Learning" and explore one more very important part of the learning process. Our Heavenly Father is represented at the top of the model. We need to add two more components "Teachers" and "Learners." At BYU-Idaho, before a teacher teaches he or she will pray for guidance in both the preparation and the presentation of the subject matter to be taught. Those prayers will be answered, and that two-way communication will occur and is essential to the mission of this institution. For the learner, that two-way prayerful communication is not only appropriate but imperative to the learning process. Similarly, for real learning to take place there must be two-way communication between the teacher and the learner. How else can the learner learn, and how else can the teacher know if the learner has learned? Teachers at this institution need to know early and consistently throughout the progress of a course whether every student has come to know, understand, and believe what is being taught. Only then is the teacher in a position to encourage appropriate action and positive personal change.
Now, what have I said to you today that I hope you will remember? I have reaffirmed what you already knew--that the glory of God is intelligence and that the more of it we acquire the better off we will be in this life and in the life to come. I have suggested that intelligence is more than being smart--that it embraces the wisdom that leads to positive personal change. I have urged you to develop a love for learning and to get all the education you can, but to always follow the counsels of God. Finally, I hope to have communicated to you the importance of viewing learning as a progressive process--that we not just learn "about" something, but that we learn "from" it--that learning is not just about acquiring knowledge; it is all about becoming the people we ought to be.
With all of this, and much more importantly, I leave you my witness that over a life time I have learned that God lives, that Jesus Christ lives and is our Savior and Redeemer, that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God, that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Thomas S. Monson is the Lord's living prophet today. Of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] D&C 88:118
[2] Discourses of Brigham Young, second edition, p. 248
[3] D&C 93:36-37
[4] D&C 130:18-19
[5] Moses 6:58
[6] Proverbs 1:5
[7] Proverbs 4:7
[8] Matthew 11:29
[9] John 5:39
[10] D&C 43:8
[11] D&C 88:77-78
[12] Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 172
[13] For the Strength of Youth, 9
[14] 2 Nephi 9:28-29
[15] 2 Nephi 28:30
[16] D&C 90:24
[17] Dallin H. Oaks, "Learning and Latter-day-Saints," Ensign, April 2009
[18] Mosiah 4:10
[19] Mosiah 5:2
Related Reading List
- Alma 5:45-46
- Moroni 10:3-5
- Galatians 6:6
- D&C 50:17-24
- Alma 17:2-3
- Alma 8:10
- Colossians 2:8
- 2 Timothy 3:7
- 1Nephi 19:23
- 2 Nephi 4:15
- 2 Nephi 15:21
- 2 Nephi 32:3-5
- Alma 37:35
- Alma 38:11
- D&C 6:7
- D&C 19:23
- D&C 46:18
- D&C 90:15,24
- D&C 131:6