“Look unto Him in Every Thought” | Joy D. Jones | 2018

We are all enticed and tempted by our surroundings. It is by our agency that we respond to enticements in a way that helps us become more like Christ.

This devotional address was given on August 21, 2018.

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"It is such a remarkable privilege to be here with you today. The years I spent on this campus afforded me a delightful assortment of memories, but never in a thousand years would I have imagined that I would be standing here addressing you today, my dear brothers and sisters. I honor and thank my Heavenly Father for this opportunity.

I had the sweetest and most distinct impression last week that my great-great-great-grandfather and my great-great-great-grandmother had something to do with my speaking here today. His name is Brigham Young, and his first wife’s name is Miriam Works Young. It is good to have support from both sides of the veil.

Being a student at Brigham Young University was a life-changing experience for me. Coming from a small town in Oregon, I felt the world open up to me right here in Provo, Utah. The Spirit was alive in every classroom, in each activity, and in the incredible roommates, friends, and teachers I loved and learned from. It has been priceless over the years to watch our children have their own life-changing experiences at this wonderful university.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked Gigi, our three-year-old granddaughter, “Will you go to college?”

She said yes.

I asked if she would go to BYU.

She again said yes. Then she turned to her daddy and asked, “Daddy, will you come with me?”

One of the sweet highlights of my BYU experience was meeting my precious husband, Rob. Little did we know during our growing up years that we lived just a little over an hour from each other. But we have all heard of BYU’s reputation for bringing people together, and that reputation became our reality. Rob was called as my family home evening “father,” and the ward rules prevented us from dating that year. But as soon as he was released, we made up for lost time.

We just celebrated our forty-fourth anniversary. This dear man has put toothpaste on my toothbrush nearly every night of those forty-four years. I know he has been tempted a time or two to surprise me by putting something other than toothpaste on my brush, but he never has. Although life is not over yet, is it?

Growing Our Spiritual Muscles
My dear brothers and sisters, I welcome you to Campus Education Week! Oh, how wonderful it is to learn! We have gathered here to be taught, inspired, and challenged. I pray that the Holy Ghost will be with each of us as we learn, apply, and change.

Dear friends, I believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is our Heavenly Father’s practical guide for happy living. President Brigham Young explained the practicality of the gospel in these words:

The principles of eternity and eternal exaltation are of no use to us, unless they are brought down to our capacities so that we practice them in our lives.1

The Lord likewise told us, “I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation.”2

Some of those “directions” that the Lord promised us are found in our 2018 Campus Education Week theme, which is Doctrine and Covenants 6:36: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.” I love this verse. It is simple and straightforward, but the challenge to look unto Him in every thought is also magnificently empowering.

Let’s now examine a peculiar word taught to us by the great prophet Lehi that can help us in our efforts to look unto the Lord. This word has taken on great meaning to me over the years. In 2 Nephi 2, Lehi gave direction to his son Jacob. Lehi said:

I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon."
–Joy D. Jones