A beautiful 'must read' message at this graduation time! Proud of our twins Jenny and Julie for their recent graduation from BYU-Idaho and for Amy's husband Aaron C. Ricks for getting his MBA today.
Listen to the words of the Lord as recorded by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Doctrine and Covenants. They constitute His call for education and establish the purpose and process of our learning:
“I give unto you a commandment that ye shall continue in prayer and fasting from this time forth.
“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;
“Of
things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things
which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to
pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and
the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the
land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—
“That
ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify
the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I
have commissioned you” (D&C 88:76–80).
Your service may not be in what the world would recognize as a lofty
calling. When the real value of service becomes clear in the judgment of
God, some people who worked in quiet anonymity will be the real heroes.
Many of them, perhaps most of them, will be the underpaid and
underrecognized people who nurtured others. I never visit an elementary
school and watch the teachers without thinking about that future day
when the rewards will be eternal. I never visit a hospital and watch
those who nurse and those who clean without thinking of that. I never
visit a workplace where someone serves me and others well, earning wages
barely enough to provide the necessities for a family,
without thinking of the future. And I never see a mother juggling three
little children who are crying while she is smiling, as she shepherds
them gently, without seeing in my mind’s eye that day of honor in the
presence of the only Judge whose praise will finally matter.
From
at least the time man was created, there was the written word. The
scriptures tell us that from what they teach about Adam and Eve. They
were conscious of the need to develop the mind and the power of reading
and writing. In the book of Moses we read, “And by them their children were taught to read and write, having a language which was pure and undefiled” (Moses 6:6).
It
takes neither modern technology nor much money to seize the opportunity
to learn in the moments we now waste. You could just have a book and
paper and pencil with you. That will be enough. But you need
determination to capture the leisure moments you now waste.
I cannot promise academic success or perfect families. Nor can I tell you
the way in which He will honor His promise of adding blessings upon
you. But I can promise you that if you will go to Him in prayer and ask
what He would have you do next, promising that you will put His kingdom
first, He will answer your prayer and He will keep His promise to add
upon your head blessings, enough and to spare. Those apparent prison
walls of “not enough time” will begin to recede, even as you are called
to do more.
The real life we’re preparing for is eternal life. Secular knowledge has
for us eternal significance. Our conviction is that God, our Heavenly
Father, wants us to live the life that He does. We learn both the
spiritual things and the secular things “so we may one day create worlds
[and] people and govern them” (Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982], 386). All we can learn that is true while we are in this life will rise with us in the Resurrection.
And all that we can learn will enhance our capacity to serve. That is a
destiny reserved not alone for the brilliant, those who learn the most
quickly, or those who enter the most respected professions. It will be
given to those who are humbly good, who love God, and who serve Him with
all their capacities, however limited those capacities are—as are all
our capacities, compared with the capacities of God.
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