Good morning and aloha! It is wonderful to be with you today at the start of this new semester. I’m grateful for the preparations that each of you has made to attend this Devotional and for the Spirit you bring to a setting such as this. My wife Margaret and I are delighted to be serving at this great institution at this special time. We have a great love for BYU–Hawaii and the students, faculty, and staff that make this such a special place. Thank you for your goodness and righteousness and your desire to learn and grow.
I would like to focus my remarks today on one of the most important dimensions of our learning – the education of the heart. I recall first hearing this phrase in a talk given by President Hinckley as he shared his thoughts about learning and education. He said the following:
“Each day we are made increasingly aware of the fact that life is more than science and mathematics, more than history and literature. There is need for another education, without which the substance of secular learning may lead only to destruction. I refer to the education of the heart – of the conscience, of the character, of the spirit – these indefinable aspects of our personalities which determine so certainly what we are and what we do in our relationships one with another.” (“With All Thy Getting Get Understanding,” Ensign, Aug 1988.)
Through the scriptures, we learn why educating our hearts is so important. The prophet Alma taught that the heart is an essential part of the soul, combining both the body and the spirit.
“Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, …when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say … that seed beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.” (Alma 32:28)
In other scriptures, we learn that the heart is the seat of true desires, “as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7), and thus represents our true self. And as the Apostle Paul taught, the Lord himself knows “our thoughts and the intents of our heart” (Hebrews 4:12) and thus can discern who we really are.
In a very real sense, the heart is the very essence of our identity. We “ponder” with our heart (Luke 2:19; 2 Nephi 4:16; Moroni 10:3); we “understand” with our heart (John 12:40); we “discern” with our heart (1 Kings 3:9); and, it is with our heart that we are “inspired” (Alma 43:48) and “edified” (D&C 50:23); finally, it is with our heart that we experience “joy” (2 Nephi 1:21) and “reverence” (1 Peter 3:15) and “peace” (John 14:27; D&C 109:38).
This explains why Satan desires the heart of man – why the heart is his targeted battlefield – and why he is willing to go to any lengths to gain access to our hearts and thereby gain control over us. For example, through the scriptures, we know that Satan desires to “harden” our hearts (John 12:40); to “tempt us” to let the world’s standards into our hearts (Matthew 15:19; D&C 45:29); to have us “remove our hearts” from God (Isaiah 29:13); to treasure “the things of this world” and make them the focus of our heart (Matthew 6:21; 2 Nephi 9:30); and to have “pride” in our hearts (2 Nephi 28:15; Jacob 2:13).
In contrast to Satan’s approach, the scriptures teach that the Lord honors, respects and holds sacred our agency; He will not force us. But because He knows the blessings that come from filling our hearts with good things and with righteous desires, He continually invites us to follow Him in the desires and intents of our hearts (2 Nephi 33:1).
As taught by Elder Gerald N. Lund, “[The Lord knows that] the heart is a tender place and that it is sensitive to many influences both positive and negative. It can be hurt by others. It can be deadened by sin. It can be softened by love. Early in our lives [and through the light of Christ and the Holy Ghost], we learn to guard our hearts. It is like we erect a fence around our hearts with a gate in it. No one can enter that gate unless we allow him or her to [do so]” (“Opening Our Hearts,” Ensign, May 2008).
One of the most important things we can do while here at this marvelous CES institution is to open that gate and gain an “education of the heart.” The extent to which we gain that education depends on what we prepare our hearts to receive, embrace, and desire. In turn, that “education of the heart” shapes our character, our conscience, and our spirit and thus determines our eternal destiny. In other words, that “education of the heart” determines who we really are.
Let’s now turn our attention to three key elements in the Lord’s plan for how we gain such an “education of the heart.” Notice that each of these three elements involves preparing our hearts.
Key Elements in an Education of the Heart
1 – Preparing our Hearts to Love the Lord and His Gospel
First, the Lord would have us prepare our hearts to love God and His son, Jesus Christ. We often think of this element when we think of missionary work. In fact, we frequently hear those who are willing to listen to this message from the missionaries referred to as the “honest in heart.” By that, we mean that they are willing to prepare, engage, and improve as they are taught the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. Initially, this might entail listening to the missionaries, discussing gospel truths found in the Book of Mormon, and then praying to know if what they’ve learned is true.
In this process, the desires and intents of the heart are of critical importance. We see this in Joseph Smith’s own account concerning his search for which church he should join. As he wrestled with the challenge of determining which church was right, he read James 1:5 in the Bible. He then recorded in his own words, “Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did. … At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God” (JSH 1:11-13).
Clearly, young Joseph’s heart was prepared to receive the message that God had for him. Over the next several years, Joseph was tutored by Moroni and other heavenly messengers as he gained an education of the heart and learned to prepare, engage, and act and thus put the Lord and His gospel first in his life. I know that many of you have had the opportunity to serve a full-time mission and thus have seen first-hand this process of educating the heart by preparing to love the Lord and follow Him.
Let me share briefly one of the great blessings of my life, which involved sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a good friend and colleague, John Chen, shortly after Margaret and I returned from presiding over the England London Mission. At that time, John and I were working together on a business school project in China.
As we were traveling and meeting with people in China, we had an open Saturday in Beijing, and John agreed to take me to the Great Wall of China. As I was leaving the hotel, I had the distinct impression that I should take with me my small red travel copy of the Book of Mormon and find an opportunity to share a gospel message with John. As we rode out to the Great Wall, I began asking John about religious beliefs in China and what he knew of Jesus Christ. I quickly learned that he had no Christian background but that he was concerned with providing his son Kenny, then age 10, a moral framework for life. He thought that religion might perhaps offer that. We had a wonderful discussion of the Savior and His teachings, and I presented John with my travel copy of the Book of Mormon and invited him to read and pray about it.
Upon our return to Boston, I invited John, his wife Wei, and his son Kenny to attend church with us. While everything was new, they enjoyed it enough to join us the following week for a broadcast session of General Conference at our ward building. Within a short time, John and Wei had agreed to meet weekly for a discussion. Because they lived in the same ward as the Boston Mission President, which was not our ward, I set it up so John and his family could have Margaret and me join the missionaries one week and the Mission President and his wife join the missionaries the next week. John was diligent in his efforts to study, discuss, and apply the gospel and within a few months was ready to be baptized. The teaching continued and some months later his wife Wei and his son Kenny were baptized as was his daughter Susan who had been away at university.
A year later, Margaret and I had the wonderful blessing of joining the Chen family at the temple, and I had the opportunity to perform the sealing for them. Let me share the two minute video of John’s testimony found on the Mormon.org website.
[Video]
The blessings of John and his family preparing their hearts to love the Savior and His gospel have only continued. A few years ago, their daughter Susan completed a master’s degree in accounting at BYU–Provo and met her eternal companion, and they were sealed in the Orlando, Florida temple. Six months ago, Kenny was called to serve in Paris, France as a Mandarin-speaking missionary.
What a blessing it has been that John and his family were willing to be taught by the missionaries and the Holy Ghost and to prepare their hearts to love the Lord and His gospel. And like each of us, they have continued to deepen their testimonies by continuing to learn, engage, and improve through their scripture study, prayer, faithful church service, and regular temple attendance.
So it is with each of us. The Lord desires that we educate our hearts by willingly putting Him, His commandments, and His kingdom first in our lives by putting them first in our hearts. This is the first great commandment, and it is central to our gaining the type of education spoken of by President Hinckley.
2 – Preparing our Hearts to Love Our Neighbors as Ourselves
A second element in our gaining an education of the heart is preparing our hearts to love our neighbor. The scriptures teach that the second great commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:38), and six of the Ten Commandments are about how we treat our neighbors. Just as we prepare our hearts to love the Lord and His gospel by preparing, engaging, and improving, we prepare our hearts to love our neighbor in the same way.
Some years ago, while serving as a Scoutmaster, I learned the importance of this second principle. When I first received the calling, I felt honored and also excited by the prospects. My dad had been a Scoutmaster for 18 years, most of my summer vacations had been at Scout Camp, I was an Eagle Scout, I’d attended a National Scout Jamboree, and I’d worked on the waterfront at a Scout camp for several years as a teenager. But I quickly discovered that I had much to learn about boys and about my role as the Scoutmaster.
From my experience as a Scout, I knew that we needed to include in our Scouting program activities that were fun and exciting but that also gave the boys a chance to learn and grow, so they would have a sense of accomplishment, confidence in facing the challenges of life, and the needed preparation for additional Priesthood responsibility and service. I had always loved skiing, so one of the first activities I selected was to take the boys to the slopes and teach them how to ski.
We made the needed preparations, and I enlisted the help of two other dads with skiing experience. The arrangements were to drive up to New Hampshire on a Friday evening, sleep in sleeping bags on the floor of a large rented condominium, and then take the boys skiing the next day before driving home on Saturday evening. As fate would have it, that week had been a particularly tough week for me at work, and I was exhausted by the time we arrived in New Hampshire and settled in at 10 PM that Friday evening.
While I was ready for a good night’s sleep, many of the 18 boys were not. They were excited and ready for a night of antics. By 1 AM, I was frustrated and even more exhausted. Each time I would fall asleep, some piece of clothing would come flying across the room, boys would start wrestling, or someone would need another drink of water or to use the bathroom. Two boys – brothers from a single parent home – had clearly picked up on my frustration and were making a game out of it. By 3 AM, when they finally dozed off, I’d had it. Then at 7 AM, they were up, waking the other boys, excited to have breakfast and get going.
In spite of the rough night, we had a successful day of skiing and all of the boys managed to learn the basics without getting hurt. We left the ski slopes, had dinner, and drove home, but I was dissatisfied with my negative memories of the night in the condo. I knew I needed some help and assistance or my tenure as Scoutmaster was not going to turn out well.
That Monday, I went jogging at noon with a close friend who asked me about the weekend ski trip with the Scouts. I told him what had happened and about my frustrations – especially with the two brothers – and then asked him for his advice. He thought about it and then asked a question which surprised me. He asked, “Do you love them?” I told him I thought I did, and he then asked, “Do they know you love them?” At that point, it struck me that, given the weekend’s experience, they might well conclude that I did not love them.
As I reflected repeatedly on my friend’s two questions, I concluded that he was correct. I would do much better, and so would the Scouts, if I really did love them and if I made sure they knew it. Over the next several weeks, I made a concerted effort to pray for greater love for my Scouts and to know how to show that love. While there were no major breakthroughs, there were lots of small wins, and over time as I got more dads and home teachers involved, we made great progress both with the Scouts and the Scouting program but more importantly in my relationship with each of the boys. We had many wonderful experiences, and I even had the pleasure of going as a leader with almost all of those same boys on a national Scout jamboree a few years later.
But I must admit that I was still never sure how much progress I was making with those two brothers. However, 10 years later, through a tender mercy, I learned that I had indeed made real progress. The ward had been split, and those two boys were no longer in our ward, but we continued to meet in the same building. One Sunday, I was in the foyer waiting to meet with the Stake President and the mother of those two boys happened to be speaking. She was talking about Priesthood holders that had made a difference in the lives of her boys. She related how she had overheard her son tell another friend that the only adult he felt he could trust was his Scoutmaster.
I was very grateful that day, both for a good friend who had pointed out the need to love my neighbor – in this case my Scouts – and for the gospel and the Holy Ghost for teaching me how to make real progress and to have it be apparent to those Scouts. The Lord desires that we willingly love others by understanding them, engaging with them, and letting that love guide our actions toward them.
3 – Preparing our Hearts to Learn with the Goal of Blessing and Serving Others
A third element in gaining an education of the heart is learning to learn with the goal of blessing and serving others. This is what is meant by the motto found at each of the church schools: “Enter to learn, go forth to serve.” And, like the other aspects of preparing our hearts, this one also involves repeated cycles of preparing, engaging, and acting to apply what we have learned. This was the lesson that Oliver Cowdery needed to learn when he desired to translate. He thought that he could learn how to do so simply by asking, but the Lord taught him that he needed to do his part by “studying it out,” both in his mind and in his heart, and then asking God if it was right, and by the power of God, he would know if it was right (D&C 8:2; 9:7-9).
This is the same pattern that the prophet Nephi described over two thousand years earlier when he said that the Lord would give us line upon line and precept upon precept, and that if we then applied that knowledge, the Lord would give us more. Nephi then added that if we failed to apply what we have been given, we would begin to lose that learning and not be given more. I believe this principle applies directly to the learning each of you is involved in on this campus.
Here at BYU–Hawaii, our learning model is built on this foundation. It entails repeated cycles of preparing, engaging, and improving by applying what is learned. When we do our part in following this pattern – studying it out in both our minds and our hearts, asking for the Lord’s help, and then applying what is learned – our learning will continue to expand and grow. And when our desire to learn is motivated by faith, guided by the Holy Ghost, and centered on serving God by serving others, our learning not only grows but the rate of that growth accelerates.
While I could illustrate this with many examples from my own life, let me illustrate it using the example of my son-in-law Rob. Rob grew up in a family that loved airplanes and was fascinated by how they were made. His grandfather had been an engineer and eventually the CEO of an aerospace firm, and his dad had been in the air force. As a boy, Rob attended air shows, built model airplanes, and read everything he could about designing and making airplanes.
As an undergraduate at BYU, he studied mechanical engineering but became intrigued with composites and their use in airframe manufacturing. As a senior project, he designed, built, and tested a rocket made with composites. Fortunately for our family, he also met and married our daughter Kristen, which we are very happy about. He then went on to graduate school at Purdue earning a PhD in Aerospace Engineering.
Rob’s first job out of graduate school was as an engineer in a Division of Raytheon that manufactured business jets. Subsequently, he moved to Lockheed in Fort Worth, TX and continued to learn as he worked on the design and manufacture of the joint strike fighter aircraft. I discovered just how much Rob loved aircraft and learning about them when he and our daughter visited in London while we were on our mission there. One Saturday, we visited the air museum at Duxbury, England (near Cambridge) where they have six hangers filled with over 600 different aircraft. I learned that Rob knew details about each of those aircraft, their design, their manufacture, and their performance.
Over the years, Rob has become an expert not just at the engineering and manufacture of airframes using composites but also at the CAD models applied in doing so. He has continued his learning and is now a full-time faculty member in Engineering at the University of Texas where he is setting up a course on additive manufacturing using 3D printing and also establishing a lab that can be used by other faculty and their students. Rob loves helping students and seeing them succeed. While many years ago he entered a CES institution to learn and then went forth to serve, he continues to do so for the purposes of blessing his own family, his students, and all of those he works with.
He truly does his part to learn line upon line and precept upon precept by preparing, engaging, and improving by applying what he has learned and then repeating the process. While I don’t know a lot about airplanes, I love talking with Rob about them because he is always so excited to share what he has been learning. One of our key goals at BYU–Hawaii is to help each of you become that kind of lifetime learner by helping you prepare your heart to learn with the goal of blessing and serving your family and others.
An Action Plan for Gaining an Education of the Heart
While preparing our hearts – to love the Lord and His gospel, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love learning with the goal of blessing and serving others – is essential to gaining an education of the heart, simply recognizing the importance of these elements is not enough. Satan knows and understands their importance as well, and he knows that if he can gain control over what enters our hearts, he will be able to prevent us from gaining such an education. While Satan has many approaches for doing this, he most frequently tries to replace each of these kinds of preparation with something he knows will prevent us from moving forward.
For example, rather than let us develop a love for the Lord and His gospel, Satan seeks to shift our focus to the things of this world – be they fashion, fame, power, or material goods. He knows that if he can get us to put something – anything – other than the Lord and His kingdom first in our lives, he wins. The noted Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, summarized Satan’s approach thus:
“Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, [and] without signposts” ( The Screwtape Letters).
When it comes to developing a love for our neighbors, Satan seeks to have us “accept” one or more of our personal weaknesses as either unimportant or as unchangeable or both. It could be a temper, impatience, selfishness, or any bad habit that interferes in our relationship with a neighbor. Invariably, anything that will get in the way of truly loving our neighbor by excusing or justifying our own shortcomings will accomplish Satan’s purposes.
And when it comes to developing a love for learning for the purpose of blessing and serving others, Satan needs only convince us either that we know enough and can stop learning or that we should pursue learning for personal gain, thereby preventing us from focusing on doing so for service. Eventually, he may get us to look for shortcuts and to compromise and reduce our love for the Lord and our neighbor as we increase our desire for personal wealth.
While these are some of the many ways Satan tries to control our hearts and hinder our desire to gain an education of the heart, a loving Father in Heaven has given us our agency, so we can choose what we prepare our hearts to receive, embrace, and desire. I would invite each of you to use that God-given agency to do so. Set a goal today to strengthen your education of the heart during your time here on campus.
You might begin this strengthening by making an assessment of the characteristics of your own heart by asking, “What adjectives would I use to describe my heart?” Or, “What adjectives would those who know me best use to describe my heart?” Each week or month, focus on strengthening one positive characteristic or overcoming one negative characteristic. Then pick another attribute to focus on improving in each subsequent week or month.
If you need help getting started, review Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel, entitled “How Do I Develop Christlike Attributes?” The entire chapter is focused on educating the heart. For example, the chapter suggests ways to develop a faithful heart, a hopeful heart, a loving heart, a virtuous heart, a learning heart, a patient heart, a humble heart, a diligent heart, and an obedient heart. The progress you make in strengthening your education of the heart will depend on how well you use your agency to prepare, engage, and apply what you learn as you seek to address each of these attributes.
My hope is that when you leave BYU–Hawaii, you will take with you a heart that loves the Lord and His Gospel, a heart that loves your neighbor, and a heart prepared to continue learning and serving others, wherever your paths may lead. This is the kind of education of the heart that we read about in the fifth chapter of Helaman.
You will recall that following an inspired and inspiring conference, King Benjamin “sent among [his people,] desiring to know … if they believed the words which he had spoken unto them” (Mosiah 5:1). The answer those people gave was, “Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. … And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do His will, and to be obedient to His commandments” (Mosiah 5:2,5).
May we each strive to gain such an education of the heart by having a “mighty change of heart” (Alma 5:40) so that we may offer unto the Lord a broken heart and a contrite spirit, that when He shall appear we shall be like Him (1 John 3:2).
This is my prayer and hope for each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.