"What's the Why?"
Brother David Saunders
January 29, 2019
We are so blessed with inspired music and talented individuals to perform it on this campus. It is so calming to the soul. Thank you! I hope you choose to listen to music that invites the Holy Ghost and not music associated with any other spirit. (I‘m certain you know the difference.)
I express gratitude for all those that made comments on the discussion board. Thanks for your insights. They were inspiring, and my confidence in your generation increases the more I interact with you.
I have been blessed to be a teacher at Ricks College and BYU-Idaho and to witness the expansion of the university over the past 30+ years. Working in the Manufacturing Engineering Technology Department has been wonderful. I have built on my love to create, build, modify, and even repair. I find joy in taking something of no value in its present form and shaping it into something that fulfills a purpose. I love to teach students skills which allow them to do the same.
With all of the good and positive things about my job, I do experience some sad moments. Those moments come when I hear about or talk with a former student that has decided to let go of the spiritual life they enjoyed at BYUI and fall into inactivity. My heart just aches for them. Why do they give up on what has the potential to bring the greatest happiness, both now and in the eternities? The answers vary, but they make the decision to enjoy the things of the world more than the things of God.
I would like to share a student project with you that was completed for a final project in one of my classes, then discuss some similarities to a greater plan we are all involved in.
The final project requirements are to design and fabricate a product with multiple parts and processes, and to utilize skills developed in the class.
Common steps experienced in the project:
- Students selected the project. The students designed this fly fishing reel—a very challenging project.
- Selection of materials. Students selected aluminum and stainless steel—great for appearance and ease of manufacturing.
- Process plan (based on the student’s experience). They selected processes to modify the shape, weight, finish, appearance, and function of the mterial. They used methods to locate, clamp, or hold material while being machined.
- Coping with failures. Students did experience failures; work pieces and tools were broken and rejected. By counseling with class mates, lab assistants, and instructors, new options and designs were presented and followed. They never gave up.
- Complete and assemble. The group had many challenges but also many successes, and after much hard work—over 200 hours in 3 weeks—they completed a functioning fishing reel.
Here is a list of the steps. Can you make any comparisons with these steps to the plan of happiness? Come up with one comparison and share it with someone close to you.
Class Project Plan of Happiness
- Design fly reel Selected the plan—a perfect plan
- Material selection Received a physical body
- Process plan based on experience Life—choices and decisions
- If failures—council and retry. Never give up. Atonement—power of repentance
- Completion and assemble—due date and grading Death—telestial world
Let me share my thoughts on how the plans are similar:
- In the spirit world, we had a problem in becoming like our Heavenly Father: we needed a body. Two plans were presented; we chose the first. We shouted for joy! This plan was hard yet tested and proven. It was perfect. The students’ project was similar in that they chose the project and were even happy, but I didn’t hear them shout for joy.
- Elements were united to create our physical bodies. We came to earth and received a physical body.
- Life—full of experiences, choices and decisions. Similar to the aluminum rod, which is machined into new shapes, life’s choices and decisions mold and shape us into what we are and what we will become. We are refined into something divine as we turn our will over to our Savior.
- Life’s failures. Just as the students experienced some failures, we may also experience failure, setbacks, challenges, sin, and feelings that can lead us away from what is our ultimate goal. The students’ parts were rejected when mistakes were made; but we are not if we choose to repent. We have a support group just as the students had; however, we also have the Savior, the ultimate source of truth.
- Just as the students had an end to the project and received a grade, we also have an end to our telestial experience and will be graded.
Just as this group of students demonstrated to me they could succeed, we all must prove to God that we can be successful. He believes in us and has confidence in us and wants us to put forth our best effort. So, what will keep us on the covenant path?
There is no reason for us to second-guess or question the plan; it is perfect. We chose it, loved it, and loved our Savior for allowing us the chance to become like our Father. I can only imagine the depth of our love for our Savior at the moment He said “Here am I, send me.”[1]
You are at BYU-Idaho working hard because you know an education will help you succeed in the world we live. However, as most of you know, your spiritual progression is even more important. I remember near the end of my full-time missionary service, my mission president counseled us on how to stay active in the Church. He just had two items he wanted us to never stop doing. Doing these in the right spirit will keep us engaged in the gospel:
- Read from the scriptures daily.
- Pay an honest tithing.
I thought, “Pretty simple. I can do that.” Well, I can’t say I have been 100% faithful on daily scripture reading since that day, but over the years I have gained a testimony of the importance of making it a daily habit and have witnessed the blessings that come from it.
Nephi wrote, “And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things.” [2] Commenting on this scripture, Elder David A. Bednar said this:
The spiritual pattern of small and simple things bringing forth great things produces firmness and steadfastness, deepening devotion, and more complete conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel. [3]
I know that these promises are real; I have experienced them. As I do these things, other aspects of living the gospel become easier. The distractions of the world seem to be less attractive.
These two simple practices will keep our focus on the covenants we have made with our Heavenly Father and His Son. They will keep us engaged in the work. I can testify they are important and bring eternal and earthly blessings. They help us to be worthy of the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. I am so grateful I followed this counsel, for as a student at Ricks College I received several impressions from the Spirit that I chose to follow that have been anchors in my life.
The first was in the selection of my major. Prior to my mission, I attended Ricks College and had taken classes in two majors. But after returning from my mission, I prayed to know the direction to go and felt at peace with the decision to pursue manufacturing as a career.
The second prompting was strange to me. I had my class schedule completed and was in the first week of classes at Ricks, but I just knew I was missing a class. Later in the day, the impression came to take a social dance class. I thought, “Wow, that is out of my comfort zone!” I was raised on a dairy farm in Oregon and hadn’t spent much time on a dance floor. However, with my brother’s encouragement, who happened to teach in the math department at Ricks, I found myself registering for the only social dance class that fit my schedule. To my surprise, the first day of class, in a round dance where you change partners often, a beautiful blonde girl became my partner, and I had the witness that I should get to know this young lady. Now, I thought of every reason under the sun why she would never go out with a red-headed, freckle-faced, farmer-tanned, skinny farm boy. Well, a couple of weeks later as we left the dance class, I found myself behind her on the way to devotional. I’m sure it was accidental. Catching up to her, I asked if I could sit with her during devotional. How original was that? To make a long story short, we still enjoy devotionals together.
The third impression came on my way to a manufacturing class in the Austin Building. It was simply this: that if the opportunity to teach in the manufacturing department ever came open at Ricks College, I was to apply. I had never considered teaching at a college or university as a career path, but at that moment it just felt right. I never forgot that impression; and when my brother called me saying there was an opening, it was easy to apply.
I will be eternally grateful for being worthy to receive those promptings. Obeying these prompting has made all the difference in my life, brought me such happiness and joy, and will continue to do so through the eternities. President Russell M. Nelson taught us in last April’s conference, “The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children. Through the manifestations of the Holy Ghost, the Lord will assist us in all our righteous pursuits.”[4] I have found that as we act on promptings from the Spirit of Truth, they come more often.
I would like to invite you to recall in your mind when the Holy Ghost has borne witness to you of eternal truths. Think of just two experiences that mean the most to you. Now I would invite you to list them on your electronic device or notebook or journal. Then, commit to expand on those tonight in your journal. Record what they mean to you, and record why you know they came from God. If you do, those experiences will become an anchor for you and perhaps your posterity. Take a moment and list those two experiences.
In preparing this address I was overwhelmed with the blessings promised to those who regularly read the scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon. Since the Restoration, every prophet has emphasized its importance and has issued profound promises by studying its doctrines. I would like to review just one, from President Marion G. Romney in 1980. I have taken the liberty to customize this to your situation:
I feel certain that if, in our [apartments], [roommates] will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their [roommates], the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our [apartments] and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. . . .
. . . Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness. [5]
Who would not want these blessings? I am a witness they will come as we faithfully study The Book of Mormon. If you have not experienced them personally, please try it.
If we choose to stop the little things that bring the Spirit, we open ourselves to the degrading influences of the world. We’ve been given so much light at this time of the world’s history. Just think of the volumes of scripture, conference addresses from prophets and apostles, Church-published manuals, inspiring hymns, patriarchal blessings, and ordinances of the temple that we can learn from in the presence of the Lord. We are truly left without excuse. Yes, we perhaps live in the worst of times in regards to Satan’s influence in our world, but as President Eyring pointed out in his devotional talk a few weeks ago, we also live in the best of times in regards to all the light and truth we have available to us.
You are, in my opinion, very blessed to be here at this university, growing in knowledge and wisdom. You are gaining spiritual and secular knowledge, developing skills that will make you more valuable in the secular arena and in the Church. This does not come without a price. It requires hard work on your part and perhaps those that are supporting you, hard work from those on this campus, and tithe payers all over the Church that help to pay the expenses of this university. You owe it to them and to God to do your best and not think that just graduating pays the debt. You start to pay the debt with a lifetime of service engaged in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Savior is blessing you to be able to learn and develop your talents. He has said: “For . . . unto whom much is given much is required.” [6] I know you and I are given much. Staying active and serving in the kingdom are required. If you ever make the choice to become inactive in future years, what would that show to the Lord? It would show ingratitude, selfishness, and pride. You would not be in a position to fulfil the Lord’s admonition of “much is required.” We learned from Sister Weber last week that much was required of the Kirtland Saints. Men, women, and children worked together, utilizing their many talents to complete the temple and receive the endowment of power. Will we be willing to give when “much is required”?
A sister in my ward shared an insight regarding those who say they have lost their testimony. She said, “You don’t lose your testimony. You didn’t nourish it.”
In order to give back, you must stay true to your covenants. You may remember Elder M. Russell Ballard’s 2016 conference address entitled “To Whom Shall We Go?” He said, “One of the most heart-wrenching stories in scripture occurred when “many of [the Lord’s] disciples” found it hard to accept His teachings and doctrine, and they “went back, and walked no more with him.” [7]
Do we ever do this? I want you to consider if you are walking with the Savior by thinking about the following questions. Brothers and sisters, are you ministering in the Lord’s way? Do you ever find yourself complaining about the Honor Code? How are you doing with the Come, Follow Me manuals? Are you going to Sunday School, priesthood, or Relief Society having read the lessons, scriptures, and coming to class with spiritual insights and questions? If so, you are walking with the Savior.
Elder Ballard continues:
As these disciples left, Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Will ye also go away?”
Peter responded:
“Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
“And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”
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.
In the end, each one of us must respond to the Savior’s question: “Will ye also go away?” We all have to search for our own answer to that question. [8]
May we all respond as Peter; and we will, if we do the small and simple things. I know as you read daily from the word of God and pay a full tithe, it will lead you to the temple and give you the desire to make and keep temple covenants. I love Elder Bednar’s words in regards to temple worship. He said:
There is a difference between church-attending, tithe-paying members who occasionally rush into the temple to go through a session and those members who faithfully and consistently worship in the temple. . . .
. . . I bear solemn witness that the fire of the covenant will burn in the heart of every faithful member of this Church who shall worship and honorably hold a name and standing in the Lord’s holy house. [9]
I cannot think of a better place to learn and become committed to the plan of happiness than in the temple. As we make covenants with the Lord in the temple and stay committed to living them, we will gain the strength to abide the day.
What’s the why? For me, it is love—pure love. Our Heavenly Parents, our Savior, and the Holy Ghost love us and believe we can make it. Because They love us, They have thus given you and me the tools to succeed. We know God is committed to the plan, and we must be too. Just as my students were committed and determined to complete the fishing reel, we too must remain anchored on what we know to be truth. We must remember what Jacob instructed us: “the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. . . . Wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls.” [10] What a profound blessing! The Holy Ghost is here for you and me and speaks to us plainly for the salvation of our souls. I can’t wait to personally express my gratitude to Him someday.
I add my testimony that truth once received in your soul and witnessed to by the Holy Spirit will not change in five years, ten years, nor throughout eternity. You can be sure of its validity and truth; and no matter what the world places in front of you, you can stand for that truth. Regardless as to whether you stay active or not, it does not change the truth of your witness, “. . . for truth abideth forever and ever.”[11] If you deny that witness, an accounting will be required, and no excuse will suffice. I know you can stand strong; your attendance today shows that desire. Please record your spiritual experiences so you can review them often.
I know as we stand on the truths we know, and strive to do the little things that bring the Spirit, we will receive revelation upon revelation to keep us fixed on eternal life with God and His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I bear testimony of Their love and confidence in you, for it is eternal. I testify, with the Spirit’s help each day, you and I can stay on the covenant path.
[1] Abraham 3:27.
[2] 1 Nephi 16:29.
[3] David A. Bednar, “ By Small and Simple Things Are Great Things Brought to Pass, ” Brigham Young University Women’s Conference, Apr. 29, 2011.
[4] Russell M. Nelson, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” Ensign, May 2018, 93.
[5] Marion G. Romney, “The Book of Mormon,” Ensign, May 1980, 67.
[6] Doctrine and Covenants 82:3.
[7] M. Russell Ballard, “To Whom Shall We Go?,” Ensign, Nov. 2016.
[8] Ibid.
[9] David A. Bednar, “Honorably Holding a Name and Standing,” Ensign, May 2009.
[10] Jacob 4:13.
[11] Doctrine and Covenants 1:39.