Cairns are placed on trails to guide us across trail segments that are unclear and difficult to find. I have described three spiritual cairns today that can help guide you safely through mortality: scriptures, prophets, and temples.

Often the Lord calls us to do difficult things that we may not be sure we want to do but that will bring great blessings.

God knows you perfectly. He loves you perfectly. His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, has asked you, “Come, follow me.” Thus, in a real and majestic sense, each of us here tonight has been “called to serve”!

So the process of learning to hear the voice of the Spirit not only refines us and allows us to enjoy the wondrous music of the Spirit, but it also blesses us, directs our steps, and brings us the favor and guidance of heaven.

His purpose on Earth was not to achieve his dreams, no matter how good or righteous they were. His purpose was to walk in the will of God. Our plan for five years from now should be to walk in the will of God.

I appreciate this opportunity to talk about BYU’s human resources—about you and me and our friends, roommates, and coworkers. We are truly blessed.

No one else can do what you can do. Please do not compare yourselves to others. Rather, bloom where you’re planted!

There is an aid, there is a strength, there is a power when we count our blessings as we labor under crosses that sometimes seem unreasonable and unfair but that can be for our good and for our strength. Carry your crosses with strength, with purpose, and while you do, count the blessings of God’s strength.

Don’t lose your confidence. Don’t forget how you once felt. Don’t distrust the experience you had. That tenacity is what saved Moses when the adversary confronted him, and it is what will save you.

Perhaps in the struggle to defend religious liberty for our churches and for all Americans, our greatest weapon is neither the voting booth nor the legal brief but the prayers that we and our worshipping communities lift up to Almighty God week after week on behalf of our nation.

The doctrine of continuing and even continuous revelation is a fundamental and distinctive tenet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In it we find the seeds of the Restoration and also the basis for our understanding concerning the importance of learning. In fact, in the face of obvious differences between revelation from heaven and the kind of learning more common to our university experiences, we also find some significant commonalities of which we should be constantly aware.

All of you have a story and are part of a grand legacy that will bless not only you and those with you today but will reach on through the generations and over space to bless many others for years to come.

Art that is centered in Christ invites the Holy Ghost to be present during its creation and, again, as it is experienced by others in performance, exhibition, or publication.

“I hope you will seek holiness, seek learning, seek revelation, seek the best gifts, seek Christlike exemplars, and, above all, ‘seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written.’”

The issues tying the United States and the Middle East together are not simple. From oil, to terrorism, to Isis, Vali Nasr explains why maintaining interactions with the Middle East is crucial at this time.

“The Church may face different challenges now than it did at the time of Peter and Paul, but it still has to deal with converts from different countries with different languages and cultures, all struggling to get closer to their Heavenly Father.”

To accomplish its mission, BYU must have all parts of its community united in pursuing it.

As you leave the campus and pursue the chance of your lifetime, I am confident that you will reflect often on the educational and spiritual roots provided by your BYU experience.

His desire is for you to change, to have a change of heart, a change of nature, and to, over time, completely cast off the natural man.

How do you view the changing world? I hope it is with optimism and encouragement rather than with the disappointment or dismay that we find in some circles.

I hope in our time together this morning we can think carefully and seriously about what we really are and, more important, what we desire and need to become. I am satisfied that this aim of a BYU education—to build character—cannot be neglected or diminished because all of the aims and the mission of this great university are so intimately related to one another.

Brothers and sisters, I salute you for the many small charitable acts you do that mean so much to others. I hope this Relief Society sesquicentennial year will be the time when you decide your life will be something extraordinary.

May He give you entrance to the hearts of those you teach and then make you know that as you enter there, you stand in holy places.

Whatever it may be that binds us, whatever sins, circumstances, or past events hold each of us captive, the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Immanuel, has come to set us free.

“We must, like the prodigal son, arise and go to our father and be prepared for that resplendent reunion.”

I invite you to look deep in your souls and ask how you can fulfill your purpose of being a child of God by loving the Lord and loving your neighbor more faithfully than you ever have before.

An essay about the Prophet Joseph Smith as a seer. Referring to the translation of the Book of Mormon, the author writes that “since Joseph, who knew the ‘particulars’ [of the translating process], chose not to describe them in detail, we cannot presently be definitive about methodology”

Joseph Smith was a choice seer of the Lord, and his prophetic calling is evidenced by the indisputable value of the works which he produced.

The abundant opportunities to choose the right that confront us in apparently small ways each day provide the choices that I am talking about. These are the choices that mold character and determine who, at the core, we really are.

One of the blessings of your BYU experience is that you should be familiar with the promise of the Lord that “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.”

We get to decide – we get to choose – the most important thing in our existence: our ultimate destiny.

Our love for the Lord should be our greatest motivation to live righteously. When we have a knowledge of and feeling for his suffering, how can we consciously contribute to that suffering through choosing to commit sin?

The most important decision you can make in this life is choosing your eternal companion. Don’t settle for less than eternity.

Someday we will meet Jesus and feel His profound love for us. Until then, we have many lessons to learn. There are going to be both smooth days and rough days throughout our lives, but the Lord has commanded us repeatedly to “be of good cheer.”

The truths of the gospel do not change.

One of the things I hope you learn here is how to be better leaders. If you do, you will be an enormous force for good.

“A choice to be good—even with the trials that come, or perhaps because of the trials that come—will allow the Atonement to change your heart.”

My prayer and plea for you, as you start this new semester, is that you choose to humble yourselves in all your endeavors; that you choose to be open to new ideas, including those that come by revelation; that you fully and accurately recognize your individual talents and potential as literal offspring of heavenly parents; that you recognize that same divinity in every other person with whom you interact; that you avoid contention; that you love and serve others; and, most of all, that you come to know the Savior more by making time for Him each and every day.

As you reflect on your BYU days, I pray that you will choose to celebrate all that was happy and good and productive. I pray, too, that you will choose to move forward with that same attitude toward all you undertake and all that undertakes you.

I am learning that my faith in the Lord is not conditioned on getting what I want when I want it. Instead, I have worked to develop trust and love for the Lord that is not transactional, but is relational.

Remember that there is one thing Christ and Satan have in common: they both want us to become like them. Satan, however, wants to trick us into it. Christ wants it to be our choice.

Choosing the Lord is both a daily and a lifelong task. In mortality we simply never arrive. We must diligently endure to the end every day.

All choices bring burdens. Aligning our choices with Christ, with His Church, and with His Apostles is the light burden.

As we leave BYU, we have the opportunity to not only choose what we will do but who we will become.

Christ is the basis for all that we do. Without the Savior and His Atonement, there would be no good news to spread.

Jesus descended below all things in order to rise above all things. He expects us to follow His example. Yoked with Him, we can rise above all challenges, no matter how difficult they may be.

Jesus so loved the world that he gave his life, and he suffered for our sins. Oh, what love! Oh, what mercy! Can we not find the way to be merciful to all those about us?

When we are in the midst of transformation, we may feel like we are being broken down, much like the butterfly in its cocoon, but the Savior will help build us up again and make us “new creatures,” if we let him.

This Christmas season I invite each of us to foster and care more for the child of God within us and bend to the exigencies of life and finances less—to take joy in the wonderful and simple journey to be the child that is like those who make up the kingdom of God.

I have come to realize that as we come unto Christ, He follows a pattern of instruction to provide inspiration and spiritual strength. He teaches eternal truths, extends invitations to act, and promises blessings to those who act in faith to fulfill His invitations.

The Book of Mormon does testify of Christ and His healing influence. I am grateful for the authors and the preservers of the plates who made it possible for us to read these marvelous accounts of the Lord extending the arms of His love to those in need.

“What Christ knew is that despite the tumult we feel all around us, God will prevail in the end.”

“Let us all show justice, kindness, and charity toward our fellowmen. Let us demonstrate the love and reverence we should exhibit toward our Almighty God.”

Active engagement in the functioning of government and in addressing community concerns is an inherent responsibility of our citizenship and demands our best efforts.

…my hope is that we can as colleagues across campus think faithfully and diligently together about how we can make inquiry, creativity, and research a more effective part of how we not only transmit known information but, more important, how we enhance teaching by participating personally in the process of discovery and the creation of new knowledge.

I can predict with a high degree of certainty that there will be many times in your postgraduate life when you will face decisions that will ultimately be determined by whether you are motivated by pride and riches on the one hand or whether you are moved to act consistently with truths that resonate in your heart and in your mind on the other.

The gospel offers us a feast fit for royalty, and we are immature and growing princes and princesses. But to receive the fullness offered to us—and think of that in the physical sense of being full when you eat—we must partake wholeheartedly, joyfully.

I bear you my testimony that God lives. He is your Father. You want to go home. You want to be with him. The only way you can be with him in the way you want to be is to become clean and spotless.

Whenever we’re thoughtful and kind and honest, the light inside us increases. Whenever we observe the Sabbath, the light increases and the darkness decreases.

However halting our steps are toward him—though they shouldn’t be halting at all—his steps are never halting toward us. May we have enough faith to accept the goodness of God and the mercy of his Only Begotten Son.

My goal this morning is to help us better appreciate the blessings of this greater light and knowledge in our lives and to better understand the methods by which it has been, and continues to be, obtained.

Brothers and sisters, I believe that God is likewise in both stones and storms on our pilgrimage to the promised land. We take with us on our journeys bright memories of times when His finger touched our lives.

“The Lord wants and needs all of you to be strong, to be believers, to be an example of goodness to all the world.”

Our physical surroundings change many times in our lifetimes. If we are listening to the Spirit, we will surround ourselves with truth and goodness in each of our earthly homes, making the pathway to our ultimate heavenly home more direct and attainable.

As important and as powerful as it is to learn some truth or to do some good act, it is much more important to be true and to be good. If you become a true and good spouse, parent, child, sibling, co-worker, or friend—and ultimately realize your divine potential as sons and daughters of heavenly parents—your higher education that has begun but not ended here will be a true success.

Those who view their contemporaries as competitors to be beaten rather than as brothers and sisters to be served often believe that others’ successes diminish their own. They are therefore more apt to find and point out faults of those around them.

As the world slides from its spiritual moorings, the Lord prepares the way for those who seek Him, offering them greater assurance, greater confirmation, and greater confidence in the spiritual direction they are traveling.

“The older I get the more I am convinced that all sin—all of it—has its roots in the dirty soil of self-gratification and self-absorption.”

Yet the true value of reading, studying, and meditating upon any scripture is to be realized only to the extent we bring both open mind and heart to the experience.

As wonderful as modern technology is, it still pales in comparison to God’s power and ability. We get to view the wonders of the universe; He gets to create them.

May your positive memories of BYU stay with you throughout your life. May your BYU connections continue to be a strong influence in all that you do. May you know that you will always be welcome here on campus on this consecrated ground.

BYU graduates before you have walked this path and can relate to what you are experiencing. You are not alone! The support you have felt as a BYU student doesn’t end just because you are graduating.

I invite you to continue to let the mission of BYU guide you to the high points in your life. Let that mission continue to lift and inspire you.

That same aim—“to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life”—remains the principal purpose of this university today, as the first line of our mission statement makes clear.

“I testify that if you will pause and think about the things you really want to achieve in the future and then begin doing the things that are consistent with that desire every day, you will achieve that desired result.”

The Lord’s emphasis on education has been strong and sustained. The dedication of this founding faculty to BYU early in the university’s history is humbling. We are the beneficiaries of the toil of early colleagues who built BYU at considerable personal sacrifice.

His plan of redemption has always required men and women to consecrate all they have and all they are to the service of God. They covenant to do that.

Consecrating our education and cultivating a giving attitude will enable us to bless many more individuals. . . . These will be the people who years later and thousands of miles away will not necessarily remember what we did but rather how we did it.

“I am satisfied that whatever else may eventually hang in the constitutional balance, this much is clear: The continuation of the blessings of liberty depends finally on our spiritual righteousness.”

So, too, obedience to God’s laws preserves our freedom, flexibility, and ability to achieve our potential. The commandments are not intended to restrict us. Rather, obedience leads to increased spiritual stability and long-term happiness.

If we are consumed with conviction for making our campus a place of belonging, we will take steps in the long journey to root out racism from BYU.

Your diligence and perseverance and patience in arriving here today will serve you well as this graduating class goes to many parts of this world where your intellect, energy, experience, and values are so critically needed.

“We need to comprehend that those who hold contrary opinions not only may be sincere but may actually be right. And even when we continue in the view that our perceptions are correct, we should be able to deal graciously with the views of others.”

We do not have to travel abroad to have fascinating and memorable experiences of service. We can and should start right here in our homes and neighborhoods. Jesus did not travel very far; often He served those very near to Him.