BYU-Pathway Worldwide Devotional
“By Whom We are Led”
Today I will focus on three of the ways that we can remember by whom we are led:
- First, let your deeper spiritual purpose ground your learning.
- Second, maintain high expectations of your divine potential.
- Third, make God your partner in BYU-Pathway.
Let your deeper spiritual purpose ground your learning
Education also allows us to serve more effectively in the kingdom. President Russell M. Nelson has taught: “In the Church, obtaining an education and getting knowledge are a religious responsibility. We educate our minds so that one day we can render service of worth to somebody else."Maintain high expectations of your divine potential
Students in BYU-Pathway often face difficult challenges in pursuing their education. I often hear people put forth the false idea that, with such difficult challenges, maybe we shouldn’t expect as much from our students. I remember years ago serving with a remarkable group of young men from inner-city Boston. Many of them were first generation members of the Church. Some came from broken homes. Many faced financial struggles. Given these and other obstacles, some of their leaders wondered if we should hold them to different expectations regarding seminary attendance, college attainment, missionary service, and Church service. This did not feel right to me. In fact, the more I reflected on it, it even angered me because it seemed to deny the divine potential in each of them. This is a picture of three of them in college. They have since gone on to serve missions, graduate from college, serve in significant assignments in the Church, and develop meaningful careers. Not once did I ever let them think I expected anything less from each of them. Similarly, as a BYU-Pathway student, we expect you to work hard, to do your best, learn and progress, and complete not only PathwayConnect, but a certificate and eventually a degree. And we expect you to learn to lift and build others because we know of your divine nature and potential.
Make God your partner
I can hear some of our students saying, “President Gilbert, come on, don’t you know how hard it is to do what you are asking us to do?” The answer is, “Yes, I do.” I have wept first-hand as I observed the struggles of so many of you. But I have also sat in awe at your resiliency and faith. I believe in you and in what you are learning and know it will change your life forever. More importantly, I believe you have the right to call on heaven’s help. In an earlier BYU-Pathway Devotional, Elder D. Todd Christofferson said: “You need to remember always that you are not alone in this. [Y]our Heavenly Father and your Savior know you and can and will grant you heavenly help. Make God your partner in BYU-Pathway.”To all of our BYU-Pathway students who worry whether you can make it: Have confidence that you are in a well-designed program that draws on the best thinking in higher education. But that alone is not why you will succeed. Let your deeper spiritual purpose ground your learning. Set high expectations and realize your divine potential. Above all, make God your partner in BYU-Pathway, and He will lift you and magnify your efforts in ways that will be hard for others to understand. At BYU-Pathway, we know by whom we are led. And it is by that light that He will prepare our way. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.