Educating Our Righteous Desires

My dear friends, I’m very humbled and honored to be here with you today. I pray that what I have prepared might help you in some small way in your own personal discipleship. Thank you so much for giving of your precious time and attention this morning. Thank you for your faith, for your goodness. I felt the love of the Savior for you as I walked into the room. Thank you for all that you are and all that you do.

Your very presence here speaks of your desire to learn and strengthen your knowledge. Let me see by a show of hands how many have been to Education Week prior to this year. Very impressive! I can see that you are ready to learn.

The Church’s Commitment to Education

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints values education.

Here are a few statistics showing our commitment to a university education. In the three BYU universities and Ensign College, we have more than 75,000 students enrolled. We add to that BYU–Pathway, with more than 66,000 enrolled across the world and tens of thousands more to come in the future. In the Church seminary and institute program, we enroll more than 700,000 students. In our Church universities and BYU–Pathway Worldwide, we have 6,000 instructors, and seminaries and institutes have more than 3,000 professional instructors and 60,000 volunteer teachers and missionaries. Each year The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints allocates more than $1 billion for the support of education.¹ This contribution comes from your freely given tithing and other generous gifts. We thank you, and we thank all those within the sound of my voice.

How about your family’s commitment to educating your children? A college education is expensive. Universities report that in the United States the cost of attendance at a four-year private university is $55,000 a year. Yesterday I read in the Wall Street Journal that more than five hundred private, not-for-profit universities and colleges have closed during the last ten years.² If you attend a four-year out-of-state public college, that cost moves down to $45,000, and a four-year in-state university is $27,000.³ I know we are all grateful for BYU in Provo and for BYU–Idaho, where the costs are significantly less. At BYU here in Provo, the cost for full attendance and expenses is listed at $21,000 annually. It has been some time since our children were at BYU, but even then the effect on our family budget was significant. We told our children: “Work hard in the summer. Do your best to get a scholarship. When you’re in school, try to see if you can work at the Cougareat. And don’t pay very much for a date unless he or she is a good prospect for marriage.”

Our education allows us to think more deeply, to better understand the world in which we live, and to greatly improve our work opportunities. Consider this statement by President Russell M. Nelson:

Education is very important. I consider it a religious responsibility. The glory of God is intelligence. . . .

Make no mistake about it: Your potential is divine.⁴

“The Education . . . of Our Desires”

The theme for this year’s Education Week comes from Romans 12: “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”⁵ My subject today addresses one of the deepest parts of renewal: the educating of our righteous desires. For years I have been intrigued by a statement President Joseph F. Smith made more than a hundred years ago: “The education . . . of our desires is one of far-reaching importance to our happiness in life.”⁶ The education of our desires—not the learning of a skill, not information inserted into the mind, but the education of our desires.

The beginning of a desire may be influenced by family or culture, but eventually deep desire becomes

a conscious, private longing for which each person is responsible. It is a powerful hope, a quiet, soul-felt anticipation originating from that sovereign territory we each possess. . . . There is a place inside of us that we uniquely and individually control and create. [You alone determine your long-term, private desires, tied closely to your personal will and agency.] These desires are being constructed or developed, fortified or weakened constantly, whether they are righteous or unrighteous.⁷

The Lord speaks very thoughtfully about our desires: “I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.”⁸ Alma added:

I know that [God] granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men . . . according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction.⁹

Our desires are profoundly important and at the foundation of how we choose to live our lives. Remember the words of Alma:

Even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you [meaning that desire can grow and be shaped and developed], even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.¹⁰

Desire is initiated by one’s own will and agency, and it works within us.

As a mission president in France more than thirty years ago, I heard a missionary ask Elder Neal A. Maxwell how he could create a desire in those he was teaching. Elder Maxwell’s response somewhat surprised me. He said, “You can build upon his desire, but he alone must initiate the desire.”

The subject of desire is enormous, and we could spend extensive time talking about righteous and unrighteous desires. My message today is for those who have received the restored gospel and have stepped boldly onto the covenant path.

Consider for a moment, “What are your most deeply held righteous desires?” Consider how you are educating your righteous desires.

More than forty years ago, I read a statement by President Boyd K. Packer that made a significant impression on me. In describing himself, President Packer said:

I want to be good. I’m not ashamed to say that—I want to be good. And I’ve found in my life that it has been critically important that this was established between me and the Lord so that I knew that He knew which way I had committed my agency. I went before Him and in essence said, “I’m not neutral, and You can do with me what You want. If You need my vote, it’s there. I don’t care what You do with me, and You don’t have to take anything from me because I give it to You—everything, all I own, all I am.” And that makes the difference.¹¹

I believe and hope that each of us here today wants to be good and that we have declared our intentions to our Heavenly Father.

You have already educated many of your righteous desires. You believe in Jesus Christ and in His sacred Atonement. You desire to follow Him. You are here today in part to educate your righteous desires.

Remember the question “What are your most deeply held righteous desires?”

Not all will be about you personally.

For example, a grandmother recently spoke to Kathy and me of a married granddaughter who is carrying twins and who has been diagnosed with a rare but very serious health issue. The prayers and pleadings of this grandmother, the good mother, the father, and all the family for this hopeful mother and her two babies are deeply righteous desires.

Righteous desires come in many shapes and sizes. What are your important desires planted firmly in your heart and visible in your life?

Consider the following:

1. You desire to be worthy to live eternally with our Heavenly Father, recognizing that it is only through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ that you might have this eternal blessing.

2. You desire to live forever with your eternal companion. For those not yet married, you desire a righteous companion.

3. You desire to help as much as possible your children, grandchildren, and posterity to desire to live worthy of these same blessings. You realize that while you can be a very positive influence, the desires will be determined by each of them.

4. You desire to contribute all you are able to the strength and purity of the kingdom of God upon the earth.

5. You desire to live the Lord’s laws of happiness.

I ask again, what are your long-term, independent, and firmly planted righteous desires? Please hold your response as you consider this question: What does it mean to educate my spiritual desires?

We educate our desires as we refine and purify our already righteous desires. Of course we each have our own personality; we each have our own inclinations and the things we like and dislike. We are each unique and different, and that makes the world interesting. While personalities can vary greatly, there is one path of righteousness, and we want to strengthen who we are becoming. When the framework of our desires is righteous, we then educate those desires in such a way that the attributes we live align with the desires of our heart. Jesus said that blessed are the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers.¹² As we educate our desires, we shape our lives in a way that will allow our desires to be realized.

Two Special Gifts That Work Together

Educating our desires combines two special gifts that work together. On the one hand, we have the determined effort of our mind and will—our choices. This is our critical contribution to the equation: sincerity, real intent, and courage. On the other hand, we have the added blessing of the gifts and grace that our Heavenly Father gives to us: faith in Christ, love of God, and the grace of holy gifts. We combine these two powerful forces into the cauldron of time and patience. Our road to becoming is more than a marathon; it is the journey of a lifetime—and well beyond.

When I was in high school, I memorized a poem that has remained in my mind for more than fifty-five years. The author, James Allen, wrote these words more than a hundred years ago. Let’s see if I can still say it without looking at the teleprompter.

Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:—
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass.¹³

As a young man, I was very impressed with the powerful force of one’s own mind and will. Through decades of spiritual discovery, I have come to have an even greater confidence in the power and goodness of the Lord. Listen to these scriptures.

From the prophet Moroni:

Deny not the gifts of God, for they are many . . . ; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them. . . .

And all these gifts . . . come unto every man severally, according as he will.¹⁴

“As he will” can be interpreted in two ways: as the Lord wills or as you will. Both interpretations are worthy of consideration.

From the very closing verses of the Book of Mormon:

Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him . . . , and love God with all your might, mind and strength [your choices, your will], then is his grace sufficient for you [His gifts, His ennobling power], that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ.¹⁵

And from our dispensation:

Seek ye earnestly the best gifts . . . ;

For . . . they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do.¹⁶

I love the phrase that the Lord adds here: “and him that seeketh so to do.” It reveals the Lord’s patience with us.

These words of the Savior are found many times in the scriptures:

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.¹⁷

Let me repeat what I said before: Here we have two forces to educate our righteous desires. On the one hand, we have the determined effort of our mind and will—our choices: sincerity, real intent, courage, and willpower. This is our contribution to the equation. On the other hand, we have the added blessing of the gifts and grace that our Heavenly Father sends to us: the grace of holy gifts magnified by our faith in Christ and our love of God. We combine these two powerful forces into the cauldron of time and patience.

We are on the quest to live eternally with God. In our very secular and increasingly wicked world, we keep our feet firmly planted in our faith in Jesus Christ and in our desire to be with Him eternally, not allowing the distractions of our mortal life to overcome our efforts to become more and more like Jesus.

Do you remember that in Jesus’s day the desires of the rulers of the synagogue brought belief but insufficient courage? Listen to these two verses from John:

Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:

For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.¹⁸

C. S. Lewis said it this way:

I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.¹⁹

And the Prophet Joseph Smith taught:

If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses, for if we are not drawing towards God in principle, we are going from Him.²⁰

We can enjoy the good things of our mortality—such as the thrill of a BYU football victory or the good food at a favorite restaurant—without allowing inconsequential things to detract us from our most important inner desires.

In the October 2023 general conference, President Dallin H. Oaks spoke of the kingdoms of glory. He said:

God has revealed the eternal laws, ordinances, and covenants that must be observed to develop the godly attributes necessary to realize this divine potential. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints focuses on these because the purpose of this restored Church is to prepare God’s children for salvation in the celestial glory and, more particularly, for exaltation in its highest degree.²¹

It has always been interesting to me that the Lord revealed that in the last days there would be relatively few members of the Church compared to the number of people in the world but that His covenant people would be “scattered upon all the face of the earth” and that they would be “armed with righteousness.”²²

President Oaks taught:

The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done. It is based on the final effect of our acts and thoughts [can you see our desires here?]—what we have become. . . . The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.²³

The process of refining, purifying, and educating our righteous desires requires time, and it requires patience. Through the joys and challenges of mortality, we seek to better know and understand our Heavenly Father’s desires for us. Then step-by-step, year by year, through His grace and our will, our desires become one with His. In this noble cause there are always obstacles that seem to get in our way—the enticing calls of the world, the ordinariness of life, the unexpected challenges that seem to come out of nowhere, and the imperfections we see in ourselves and in our fellow Saints. It is our test to educate and grow our righteous desires as the difficulties and the disappointments attempt to upend us. The overarching grace of Christ combining with our resolute righteous desires allows us to become the eternal being we so want to become.

As we feel the love of our Heavenly Father, we do our very best to completely trust in Him and in His desires for us. We seek to think as He thinks, love as He loves, and desire as He desires so that one day we might live with Him. Though we are imperfect, living in an imperfect world, we move toward our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son, who are totally and completely perfect.

Having just enjoyed the Olympics, I insert here the powerful words of Eric Liddell—an Olympic gold medalist in the 1924 Paris Olympics—as reflected in the movie Chariots of Fire:

You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It’s hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. You experience elation when the winner breaks the tape. . . . But how long does that last? You go home. Maybe your dinner’s burnt. Maybe—maybe you haven’t got a job. So who am I to say, “Believe, have faith,” in the face of life’s realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. . . . Where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me.” If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.²⁴

Sacred Covenants with God in His Holy House

I have prayed to know what very specific counsel I might share with you that could help you better educate your righteous desires. I was so thankful for that beautiful music of “Did You Think to Pray?”²⁵ performed today.I could speak of prayer, scripture study, the sacrament, following the words of God’s prophets, or service to others. But I have felt impressed to speak to you today about the covenants that we make in the holy endowment in the temple. Those five covenants are stated in the General Handbook and are available for all to read. Think of these five covenants and how they are foundational to educating your righteous desires:

• Live the law of obedience and strive to keep Heavenly Father’s commandments.
• Obey the law of sacrifice, which means sacrificing to support the Lord’s work and repenting with a broken heart and contrite spirit.
• Obey the law of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the higher law that He taught while He was on the earth.
• Keep the law of chastity.
• Keep the law of consecration.²⁶

While these five covenants, at first reading, seem very clear, as we mature in our spiritual sensitivity, we realize that within each of these promises there are multiple layers of understanding and commitment. Many here have made these sacred covenants with God in His holy house. Let’s discuss how these covenants in the house of the Lord help us to better educate our righteous desires.

The most important knowledge and direction we receive comes from God. One of the most powerful places to receive the answers we seek and to shape our righteous desires is within the house of the Lord. When the impressions come to us in His holy house, the direction is without compulsion or cultural pressure; they are not from well-meaning friends or family. It is the Lord speaking to us through His Spirit.

Our Heavenly Father knows your heart and your spirit. He knows your strengths and weaknesses. He understands your anxieties and your hopes, your longings, and your fears. He knows your private struggles, and He knows your faith. Nothing about you is a mystery or a surprise to Him. The Lord’s revelation, which may come without explanation, is His truth especially for you, His encouragement and comfort to you, His correction of you, and His love for you.

You might be asking yourself, “Will the Lord actually teach me in the temple? Not only the stake president and the Relief Society president, but me? Even with all my failings?”

The answer is a resounding yes! He will speak to you:

As evil increases in the world, there is a compensatory spiritual power for the righteous. 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 gift of the Holy Ghost becomes a brighter light in the emerging twilight.²⁷

When we enter the temple, we open our heart to the Lord. Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, “The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar.”²⁸ In the temple, we come humbly ready to receive His instruction and to “align our desires with His.”²⁹

Let’s walk through an example of how we might approach educating our righteous desires as we worship in the temple.

In our prayers prior to going to the temple, we pray to know where our desires might be strengthened, allowing us to better follow the covenants we have made. We think of those thoughts and actions we need to be willing to change. We consider the gifts and grace we will need from our Heavenly Father and His Son, for without Their blessing, we will never return to Their presence. We know we can’t do everything at once, so we study out in our mind different possibilities through which the Lord may want to educate our desires.³⁰

For example, one consideration could be our covenant to follow “the law of the gospel.” Perhaps there is someone who has wrongfully upended your life. We know we need to forgive and end the rancor. We go to the temple truly willing to try to think and do differently. We consider the grace and gifts we will need if we are to succeed. We enter the house of the Lord with faith in Jesus Christ and hope in our struggle.

Think how we could come with other concerns: perhaps how our obedience might be more exact and willing; perhaps how in following the law of chastity we might refine our thoughts or entertainment choices; or perhaps how our covenant to keep the law of consecration might better embrace our assignment to be a ministering brother or sister. Our need to educate our righteous desires is very much individualized.

We study these desires in our mind. We reason through what we are willing to think or do and how we are willing to use our agency. We consider the gifts and grace we will need for our desires to actually improve, for our desires to actually be educated.³¹

In the house of the Lord—a quiet and holy place protected from the outside world—we open our hearts. We silently plead for heaven’s influence, for our Heavenly Father’s answers to our righteous desires. Remember President Nelson’s powerful promise in speaking of the temple? “Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing!”³²

My promise to you is that as you thoughtfully prepare to enter the Lord’s house with a willing heart, with real intent, awaiting the Lord’s direction, you will receive the lifting power to educate your desires and strengthen you in your desire to become.

Here is Elder Maxwell once again:

Each assertion of a righteous desire, each act of service, and each act of worship, however small and incremental, adds to our spiritual momentum. Like Newton’s Second Law, there is a transmitting of acceleration as well as a contagiousness associated with even the small acts of goodness.³³

For you and me, the most important example of aligning our desires with the will of the Father is our Savior, Jesus Christ. We all know His most powerful example. He began in the premortal council: “Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.”³⁴ His final words uttered on the cross: “Father, it is finished, thy will is done.”³⁵

Between these two solemn, sacred, eternity-altering events, He lived a perfect life—a life without sin. He taught us how to live. He became our Savior and Redeemer.

The daunting details of Gethsemane reveal the Savior’s absolute and complete willingness to submit His desires to those of the Father.

Jesus entered Gethsemane with Peter, James, and John, and He “began to be sorrowful and very heavy.”³⁶ Leaving His apostles, the Lord declared, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.”³⁷ Falling on His face, He pled, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”³⁸

President Jeffrey R. Holland reflected:

[The Savior’s] whole prayer, Mark noted, had been that if it were possible, this hour would be stricken from the plan. He says, in effect, “If there is another path, I would rather walk it. If there is any other way—any other way—I will gladly embrace it.”³⁹

But in humility, the Son concluded, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Can we learn from Him?

Returning to the apostles and finding them asleep, He asked them to be vigilant in prayer with Him and reflected, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”⁴⁰ This is the constant struggle we face within our own righteous desires. We, too, are to find in our spirit the strength to overcome the pulls of mortality, to become one with our Heavenly Father.

The scriptures tell us that twice the Savior prayed, “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”⁴¹ Through His sacred supplication, “the will [or desire] of the Son [was] swallowed up in the will of the Father.”⁴²

While our struggles can in no way imaginable be measured against His incomparable example of aligning His will with the will of the Father, it brings to us a beautiful vision of our way forward.

We can shape our desires. We can educate our desires. We can, through patience and time, become more than we are. We can come in alignment with our Savior and our Heavenly Father. I thank you for these few minutes in which I could express these thoughts and my testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and the purposes of His plan for us here on earth. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. Through very sacred moments, through unforgettable events, and through the intensity of the Spirit undeniably pressed upon my heart, I know He lives. He is resurrected. All that we believe is true. Our faith is not in vain, and we will all kneel before His feet. All the world will confess that He is the Son of God. I give you my firm and sure and confirming witness that He lives, that He is our Savior and Redeemer, and that there is a place for us, each of us, by His side as we shape and educate our righteous desires. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

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