It feels like we have been going through a In the face of change, a question I feel period of change in recent years—both as a society and with the changes and challenges you might be experiencing in your personal life. If you feel tired, it seems you may be justified!
Sometimes change can be exciting and is desperately needed. Change can lead to innovation and creativity and can open possibilities not previously imagined. Other times (or at the same time) change can feel scary or daunting, especially when we didn’t choose it. Calls for change can also lead to defensiveness and insecurities as we wonder what is so faulty in us that we require change. These are all valid emotional responses to change, and I acknowledge them, having felt them myself at one point or another.
In the face of change, a question I feel the Lord has repeatedly asked me is whether I want to remain comfortable or I want to grow. If I am totally honest, much of the time I’d prefer to remain comfortable. However, President Henry B. Eyring reminds us, “Our Father in Heaven is concerned not just about our comfort but even more about our upward progress.”1 Change is the Lord’s process of helping us become who He would have us become. Whether we choose the change or not, whether we agree with it or not, if we allow Him to, the Lord can consecrate all change for our good and make it part of the process of becoming.
In his book Power to Become, Elder David A. Bednar highlights that becoming is only possible “by and through and because of the Savior’s Atonement,” and he defines becoming as “growing, developing, changing, transforming, and converting.”2 The need to grow does not always mean that we are doing something wrong or that our great efforts are not seen and acknowledged.
Elder Bednar stresses, “I am not sure . . . we know and understand that the Atonement [of Jesus Christ] is [not only for sinners but] also for saints—for good men and women who are obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully.”3 Becoming is not just about improving where we lack, but it is also about making that which is already good in us even better. This happens through our own efforts and especially through and because of the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which is what can transform the process of change into a process of becoming.
What can we do to cheerfully embrace our own transformation along this path of becoming? Elder Bednar suggests that “the spiritual gift of personal peace is the foundation upon which the power to become is established.”4 So what I hear him saying is that we can’t become all the Lord would have us be until we first establish personal peace.
This is a hard time in the world and in our nation to feel peace, but finding personal peace, “the peace which passeth all understanding,” is essential to our progress, and it is attainable under any circumstance.5 President Russell M. Nelson has pled with us “to do all [we] can to end personal conflicts that are currently raging in [our] hearts and in [our] lives.”6 Today I would like to share three suggestions that I believe can increase our personal peace and subsequently provide the foundation for becoming.
SEEK TO SEE CHANGE IN A POSITIVE LIGHT
First, I believe we can increase personal peace by striving to see change in a positive light rather than focusing on the negative. I’m not saying that we can’t mourn our losses, disagree, or process the inconveniences of change, but if we stay in that place, it leads to bitterness and stagnation. In a talk entitled “Progress Through Change,” Elder Marvin J. Ashton said:
We need not feel that we must forever be what we presently are. There is a tendency to think of change as the enemy. Many of us are suspect of change and will often fight and resist it before we have even discovered what the actual effects will be. When change is thought through carefully, it can produce the most rewarding and profound experiences in life.7
I saw an example of this recently. The new Orem Utah Temple is in my stake, and a few weeks into the summer of 2024, some members of my ward were invited to go help plant f lowers on the grounds. When we arrived, we learned that we actually would not be planting flowers but would be tearing the spring flowers out to make way for the summer flowers. This was a somewhat disturbing change because the spring flowers were still perfectly beautiful. They weren’t yet wilted or dying, and they seemed to our untrained eyes to be adequately contributing to the beauty of the grounds. I heard several folks lament our efforts and the waste we were creating as we tore out the old flowers to make way for the new.
The following week when I drove by the temple, all the new summer plants were in the ground, and they didn’t look as radiant as the spring flowers had. It caused me to reflect again on why the change was necessary and whether it was premature. But as the weeks went by, the summer flowers fulfilled the measure of their creation and stunningly added to the beauty of the temple in a way that far surpassed the spring flowers that were late in their season. It struck me that this is how the Lord engages us in change: identifying what may need to be fortified in us before we do and clearly seeing our future potential. If we can see change in this hopeful light, even when at first sight the changes don’t meet our expectations or seem inferior to what we experienced in the past, I believe we will be led together to see what the Lord can make of us.
In a recent conference talk, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf said:
If we draw near unto God and reach out to touch Him, we can indeed find healing, peace, and joy. . . .
If we seek reasons to be angry, to doubt, to be bitter or alone, we will find them. . . .
However, if we seek joy—if we look for reasons to rejoice and to happily follow the Savior, we will f ind them.
We rarely find something we are not looking for.8
Strive for Faith over Fear
Second, I believe personal peace comes as we are faithful and not fearful. Fear is a natural response to change and often leads to catastrophizing as well as accepting and spreading misinformation. The tendency toward a fear response can be especially likely when you’ve been taken by surprise or when trust has been broken previously.
Several years ago, I was called as a Young Women camp cook for our stake at Heber Valley Camp. After the first day of cooking for hundreds of girls—which is so far from being one of my strengths that I can’t even adequately articulate it—I cleaned up with a heavy heart. I put all the sundry pots and utensils away in the outdoor pavilion, set the oven mitts on the counter near the sink, and stumbled back to the cabin for the first of what I was certain would be a week of sleepless nights on a wooden mattress.
The following morning as I blearily prepared to help make breakfast, determined that the second day would be a happier one, I grabbed the oven mitts from where I’d left them on the counter and thrust my hand inside with vigor. To my great surprise, at some point during the night, a small rodent deduced that my oven mitt—carelessly left exposed to the elements—looked like a comfortable place to slumber, and when I disturbed him, he responded by scampering across my hand, up my arm, and down my body at breakneck speed, squeaking at me the entire time.
Now for those of you who know me, I’m not one for grand outbursts of emotion. But as the story goes, I apparently jumped several feet in the air and screamed in uncharacteristic and extended fashion. To this day, I am still wary every time I stick my hand in an oven mitt, even when I am fairly certain that no mouse is residing there. Because of my past experience, if I’m not careful, I can quickly convince myself—even several years later—that the innocuous oven mitt in the bottom drawer of my house just might also have a small beast waiting inside to startle me, so I probably should just avoid cooking altogether.
If not somewhat understandable, clearly my reaction is unhelpful and does not promote peace, engagement, or growth. Because of past experience, we all have to actively work to move away from fear and toward faith.
This should be easier when we remember that ultimately the Lord is directing His work, and we know He is unchanging, dependable, and completely trustworthy. Elder Holland has provided wise counsel:
Brothers and sisters, this is a divine work in process, with the manifestations and blessings of it abounding in every direction, so please don’t hyperventilate if from time to time issues arise that need to be examined, understood, and resolved. They do and they will. In this Church, what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith.
So be kind regarding human frailty—your own as well as that of those who serve with you. . . . Except in the case of His only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it. So should we. And when you see imperfection, remember that the limitation is not in the divinity of the work.9
I urge us all, as we face change, to challenge our fears, our assumptions, our judgments, and even what we hear from others when it does not come directly from the source. Please seek accurate information and recognize when you’re responding with fear instead of faith. Seek comfort in trusted friends, family, and others who may be able to answer questions and provide an expanded perspective.
Remember that the Lord is guiding this work, despite our imperfections, with His steadying and enabling hand. Sister Lisa L. Harkness reminds us, “Even in turbulent times, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is gritty and resilient.”10
Reorient Yourself Toward Meekness
My final suggestion to obtain personal peace is that we each strive for increased meekness in the face of change. Elder Bednar has instructed us that “meekness is a defining attribute of the Redeemer and is distinguished by righteous responsiveness, willing submissiveness, and strong self-restraint.”11 He also taught:
Meekness is not weak, timid, or passive. Meekness is the quality of being God-fearing, righteous, teachable, patient in suffering, and willing to follow gospel teachings. A meek person is not easily provoked or irritated, pretentious, arrogant, or overbearing. . . . A distinguishing characteristic of meekness is a particular willingness to learn both from the Holy Ghost and from other people who may seem less experienced or capable, may not hold prominent positions, or otherwise may not appear to have much to contribute.12
As we foster meekness, we combat pride. At its core, pride is about comparison and self-elevation.13 For some of us, comparison leads to envy and bitterness, while for others comparison may lead us to think we are superior to another in terms of knowledge or righteousness.
Elder Dale G. Renlund has said:
Comparing ourselves to others can lead us to make pernicious errors, especially if we conclude that we are more righteous than those who are struggling. Such a comparison is like drowning hopelessly in three meters of water, seeing someone else drowning in four meters of water, judging him a greater sinner, and feeling good about yourself. After all, we are all struggling in our own way.14
Elder Patrick Kearon reminded us recently that “God wants for us a radical reorientation of our selfish and prideful impulses.”15
Pride is considered the universal sin,16 so I want to be clear that one reason this has been on my mind so much is that the Lord has spent surrounded by noisy washing machines and the last few years showing me the many ways that I should be striving to root pridefulness from my own heart.
A few years ago, I dashed over to the Provo City Center Temple hoping to squeeze in an initiatory session before a meeting. When I arrived, the temple workers said the wait was over an hour but that if I wanted, I could go down into the basement and fold laundry. I had never been given that option before, and I never have since, so it’s been an interesting opportunity for reflection over the years.
I went to the temple with an expectation that I would be doing the work for my family members, that I would be directly involved in an ordinance. As I sat in the basement dryers, folding temple clothes and feeling fairly certain I was doing it incorrectly, the Lord was teaching me an important lesson. I wasn’t able to contribute that day in the ways that I had hoped, I didn’t have a voice, and some might even say that I was instead relegated to a menial task. However, there are no menial tasks in a temple of learning. I left with an assurance that no matter what I was doing in the temple, the Lord would consecrate it for His good and for mine. I needn’t worry so much whether I was upstairs or down, just that the Lord wanted me to find joy in whatever contribution He had for me at that time.
I am consistently amazed at the meekness that I observe among so many in this college who are leaders in their disciplines and fields. It really is miraculous. Elder Bednar counseled:
It is the unique combination of meekness and academic excellence that will set Brigham Young University apart from all other institutions of higher education. . . . As you [walk in the meekness of the Lord’s Spirit], you will find rest unto your souls and you will have peace in Him.17
Conclusion
I love this college community that we have, and I can’t think of a group with whom I’d rather grow in the face of continuous change. I acknowledge that change is not always easy, and I know many of you are also dealing with personal struggles that deeply impact your bandwidth. Elder Neil L. Andersen has said that “our road to becoming is more than a marathon; it is the journey of a lifetime—and well beyond.”18 While we all appropriately feel urgency to become, I hope we will also acknowledge that we cannot run faster than we have strength.19 I testify that Christ is directing His work. He “is directing and [has] a care over this school.”20 I am tremendously grateful for His chosen prophets, seers, and revelators and the ways in which they guide and direct us. I am daily thankful that I work at a university where I can so seamlessly integrate my faith and my academic training.
Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus has said, “God is our Father. He knows your heart’s desires and your possibilities, and He trusts you.”21 My friends, I trust you and I love you. I truly believe that this college and the people in it have an essential role to play in the prophetically directed future of this institution.
I believe that if we seek to see change in a positive light, if we strive for faith over fear, and if we pursue a radical reorientation away from pride and toward meekness, we will experience an increased measure of personal peace. On this foundation of personal peace and with the Savior by our side, I have no doubt that we will become what He needs us to become, both individually and collectively. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
| 1. Henry B. Eyring, “My Peace I Leave with You,” Ensign, May 2017. 2. David A. Bednar, Power to Become: Spiritual Patterns for Pressing Forward with a Steadfastness in Christ (Deseret Book, 2014), 4. 3. David A. Bednar, Power to Become, 15. See also David A. Bednar, “In the Strength of the Lord,” BYU devotional address, October 23, 2001. 4. David A. Bednar, Power to Become, 38. 5. Philippians 4:7. 6. Russell M. Nelson, “The Power of Spiritual Momentum,” Liahona, May 2022. 7. Marvin J. Ashton, “Progress Through Change,” Ensign, November 1979. 8. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “A Higher Joy,” Liahona, May 2024. 9. Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lord, I Believe,” Ensign, May 2013, emphasis in original. 10. Lisa L. Harkness, “Peace, Be Still,” Ensign, November 2020. 11. David A. Bednar, “Meek and Lowly of Heart,” Ensign, May 2018. 12. David A. Bednar, “Walk in the Meekness of My Spirit,” BYU university conference address, August 28, 2017. See Guide to the Scriptures, s.v. “meek, meekness,”. | 13. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Pride and the Priesthood,” Ensign, November 2010. 14. Dale G. Renlund, “The Powerful, Virtuous Cycle of the Doctrine of Christ,” Liahona, May 2024. 15. Patrick Kearon, “God’s Intent Is to Bring You Home,” Liahona, May 2024.16. Ezra Taft Benson, “Beware of Pride,” Ensign, May 1989. 17. Bednar, “Walk in the Meekness of My Spirit.”18. Neil L. Andersen, “Educating Our Righteous Desires,” BYU Education Week address, August 20, 2024. 19. See Mosiah 4:27. 20. John Taylor as quoted in Zina P. Young Williams Card, “Short Reminiscent Sketches of Karl G. Maeser,” unpublished typescript, undated; also in Foundations and Dreams, ed. John S. Tanner, vol. 1, Envisioning BYU (Brigham Young University, 2022), 156. 21. Andrea Muñoz Spannaus, “Faithful to the End,” Liahona, May 2024. |
