Final resume shaped by values
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Click here for complete text of Bishop Edgley's remarks
Bishop Richard C. Edgley, first counselor of the Presiding Bishopric, addressed BYU-Idaho graduates July 23 at the university's spring semester commencement.
"As you leave this outstanding university you will be able to put on your resume 'graduate of Brigham Young University-Idaho,' " Bishop Edgley said. "This will undoubtedly be the most important item on your resume up to this date.
However, it is just the beginning of your life-long resume — the resume the Lord calls 'the Book of Life' — the resume the scriptures tell us we will be judged by."
He noted that making choices — a constant, unwavering aspect of mortal existence — is both based on and reflective of one's value system.
"Perhaps the most important choice you have made is the value system that has governed all your past choices," he said. "And the most important choice you will make in the future is what value system will govern all your future choices. As long as your value system is anchored in the doctrines of the gospel, you will continue to make choices that will guide you through this life and reward you with both temporal and spiritual blessings."
According to Bishop Edgley, every individual's "final resume will be the result of choices." In order to ensure a happy ending to life's sojourn, he exhorted the graduates to make three very specific choices throughout their lives: choose faith, choose humility and its companion gratitude, and choose to be a light and an example.
Choose faith
Bishop Edgley said that choosing faith is an effective antidote for times when conflicting messages and dissonance assail our value systems.
"Choose faith over doubt," he said. "Choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism."
He made the point that even something as seemingly benign as the acquisition of knowledge can be detrimental to the soul if it is not undertaken in a spirit of faith.
"Studying the best books [and] then also learning by applying God's inspiration, with prayer and scripture study, validates our learning, provides tempering, and sustains our faith," he said. "Do not be deceived because you cannot prove the doctrines or the revelations in centimeters or in a test tube. The Lord does not use the metric scale or a chemistry lab to measure faith. With all your learning and intellectual enlightenment, do not lose your grip of the iron rod."
Bishop Edgley capped off his discussion of faith by referring to Alma the Younger's missionary sermon in the 32nd chapter of Alma of the Book of Mormon.
Humility and gratitude
Pride wreaks havoc on unwitting individuals and wrecks spiritual moorings, Bishop Edgley said. The only surefire cure for pride and its pernicious symptoms is to be humble and grateful.
"Humility is the fountain from which the waters of gratitude flow," he said. "My experience has been that truly great achievers have never forgotten their roots; they have never forgotten the sacrifices made in their behalf and they cease not to be grateful. That humility and gratitude manifests itself in how you accept success and how you treat the less successful."
Bishop Edgley said achievement must not be allowed to displace humility or gratitude.
"Don't let your worldly successes or earthly learning become a substitute for spiritual wisdom, divine direction and a humble and grateful heart," he said. "Count your blessings and give thanks."
A light and an example
In order to illustrate the powerful positive effect examples can have on minds and hearts, Bishop Edgley related a personal story from his days as a graduate student at Indiana University.
At the first meeting of an economics class, a professor with a reputation for being tough and demanding asked each student to give a brief introduction consisting entirely of name and undergraduate university. The professor's interest was piqued when Bishop Edgley announced he was a graduate of BYU.
"The professor," he said, "stopped the introductions and said something like this: 'It is wonderful to have another great student from Brigham Young University in this class.' Now he did not say this about the very capable students from Indiana, Minnesota, Harvard, or other respected universities.…
"As I savored the undeserved limelight for those few moments, I was grateful for a string of LDS students who had preceded me at Indiana University. I was grateful for the impressions and influence these students had made on the life of this professor, and probably others. I was determined not to mar the reputation of myself or those who had left such a legacy of example. This legacy was a motivation to me throughout my schooling at Indiana and my professional life."
Bishop Edlgey asked the BYU-Idaho graduates who will soon be heading out into the world to leave the kind of legacy for others like the one he serendipitously happened upon in Indiana.
"At Indiana I was grateful for the footprints that had been left and the candles that had been lit. You also can leave footprints and light candles."
