Education and Self-Reliance

I was asked to speak in my ward's sacrament meeting yesterday. I was given a week to prepare, and that was more than enough time to prepare a talk, especially given the assigned topic:"How the Pathway Program Can Aid in Self-Reliance"

Initially, as it so often goes, I had one plan for the way to direct my talk. Then, with prayer and pondering, a different direction came to light. I like when that happens. I like knowing it's not actually all up to me.

We still ended up going over a couple minutes in sacrament meeting.

Here is the talk I tried to deliver.

President Russell M. Nelson said, “Gain all the education you can. For us as Latter-day Saints, gaining an education is not just a privilege, it is a religious responsibility.” 

I am an education missionary for the Church. With a lot of love, I’m going to talk to you about education and how furthering our educations can help us become more self-reliant.

Elder Robert D. Hales taught, “Education prepares you for better employment opportunities. It puts you in a better position to serve and to bless those around you. It will set you on a path of lifelong learning. It will strengthen you to fight against ignorance and error. As Joseph Smith taught: “Knowledge does away with darkness, suspense and doubt; for these cannot exist where knowledge is. … In knowledge there is power.”9 “To be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.”10 Education will prepare you for what is ahead.” This includes marriage, family life, church service, community service, and of course, your professional work.

So why is a formal education so important? Why can’t I just be an autodidact and that be good enough? Well, it is absolutely magnificent to seek learning and growth on our own, and certainly we should every day of our lives in one fashion or another. Truly, we should be reading out of the best books and teaching one another all the time. But for college degrees, let’s just look at a few numbers…

A recent study on educational degrees earned and their economic effects found that…

“Those with an associate degree earn on average 19% more per week than those with at most a high school diploma, and for those attaining a bachelor’s degree, that figure jumps to 44.7%. Workers that earn higher than a bachelor’s degree make about 64% to 82% more than those with at most a GED/high-school diploma.”

Study after study continue to show that households led by bachelor’s degree holders or certified skilled individuals contribute more positively to their communities and draw less on social or governmental resources. Standards of living are higher in communities that hold more college degrees. Charitable contributions, service rendered, and volunteering are all higher among those who hold college degrees. The children of parents who graduated with college degrees are many times more likely to graduate from college themselves than if their parents didn’t obtain college degrees. And for those who already have their children but not their degree, what an amazing example it could be to go back to school and show those kids how important it is to you and for them!

A while back, President Russell M. Nelson taught from the pulpit,

“Leaders of this Church have repeatedly emphasized the importance of education. It is a vital component of wisdom. Not long after the pioneers began construction of their temple in Illinois, they established the University of the City of Nauvoo. The First Presidency proclaimed that this university “will enable us to teach our children wisdom, to instruct them in all the knowledge and learning, in the arts, sciences, and learned professions.”1

Later, there were several other academies of learning established.

Today, we have BYU Pathway Worldwide & PathwayConnect! So what is Pathway? Well, “PathwayConnect is a reduced-cost online program that prepares students to start or finish a degree by building spiritual confidence and teaching foundational academic skills. And all course credits earned during this year-long program count toward a bachelor's degree.” I am happy to talk to any of you about this if you want more details. If you’d like to do some research ahead of time, and I highly recommend you do, please visit byupathway.org and do some of your own digging.

Going back to President Nelson, “Scriptures teach that “the glory of God is intelligence.” (D&C 93:36.) They also teach that individual “intelligences … were organized before the world was.” (Abr. 3:22.) “Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.” (D&C 93:29.)

Our personal intelligence is everlasting and divine.

He continues, “Because of our sacred regard for each human intellect, we consider the obtaining of an education to be a religious responsibility. Yet opportunities and abilities differ. I believe that in the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution, and personal faith more forceful than faculty.

Our Creator expects His children everywhere to educate themselves. He issued a commandment: “Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” (D&C 88:118.) And He assures us that knowledge acquired here will be ours forever. (See D&C 130:18–19.)

Measured by this celestial standard, it is apparent that those who impulsively “drop out” and cut short their education not only disregard divine decree but frustrate the realization of their own potential.”

Brothers & Sisters, we each have our own circumstances. Some of us went on to college, obtained desired degrees, and are working their plan. This is fabulous. There are lots of others of us who left college without finishing or never began. This can be for a thousand different reasons, and many out of our control perhaps. I know there are people in here who wished they had obtained a college degree, or they sense a nagging feeling that they need to do something different to affect positive change to personal circumstance.

So many in here are more than aware of the barriers that have existed all around them when it comes to obtaining a college degree: cost of tuition; cost of time; inconvenience; access to a college campus; fear of the unknown; fear of the difficulties of going back to school after all this time, fear of failure, fears of all sorts… But let us remember 2 Timothy 1:7

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Remember that. Remember that when you're facing anything worthy, enlarging, and necessary.♥

When speaking to a group of students at BYU, Elder Neal A. Maxwell quoted one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis by saying, “If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun… Life has never been normal.”

Elder Maxwell adds, “Be true, therefore, to the buoyancy in your nature which responds to your innate cravings for truth and beauty in spite of circumstances.”

It is part of our divine natures to seek for knowledge, truth, and light. It is part of why we came here.

Abraham 3:25 “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them”

There are lots of barriers, believe me, I know. BYU Pathway exists to help bring down those barriers, so that individuals can get back to school, so they can provide better livings and opportunities for their families. BYU Pathway helps people to live the commandments better. It helps enliven minds, improve financial stability and workplace advantage, and get the gospel of Jesus Christ down into the hearts of anyone willing to do the work.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “Built… into the seemingly ordinary experiences of life are opportunities for us to acquire such eternal attributes of love, mercy, meekness, patience, and submissiveness and to develop and sharpen such skills as how to communicate, motivate, delegate, and manage our time and talents and our thoughts in accordance with eternal priorities. These attributes and skills are portable; they are never obsolete and will be much needed in the next world. Our intelligence will rise with us, meaning not simply our IQ, but our capacity to receive and to apply truth. Our talents, attributes, and skills will rise with us, certainly also our capacity to learn, our degree of self-discipline, and our capacity to work.”

Obtaining a college degree isn’t about the prestige of holding a degree. It isn’t about making more money than your neighbor. It is about obtaining light and knowledge. It is about deliberately improving skills, self-discipline, and our ability to learn and grow and do. It is about positioning ourselves to best take care of ourselves and families, and to contribute and help build the kingdom of God.

“BYU-Pathway is not the right choice for everyone, but it is a resource for many people in the world. Regardless of where we study or our field of choice, education is a priority for us as Church members. [Remember], President Nelson has stated: “Gain all the education you can. For us as Latter-day Saints, gaining an education is not just a privilege, it is a religious responsibility.” The Spirit will guide each one of us to seek education in ways that are needed to improve our temporal and spiritual self-reliance.”

TESTIMONY: Divine principle that we are to obtain knowledge, to be disciplined, to position ourselves to best provide for our families spiritually and temporally, and to be positive contributors to society and adept builders in His kingdom. Nephi taught us that the Lord will give us a way to fulfill His commands. BYU Pathway can serve as just one of those ways.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.♥ 

Some thoughts to point to, if needed...


Moses 1:39 “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

D&C 93:36 “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.”

Starting with PathwayConnect might be the best way to start your degree if you fit one or more of these criteria:

• Worried about affordability
• Been away from college for a long
time, or haven’t started yet
• Seeking to develop foundational academic skills
• Desire additional support from peers


ON WORK:

J. Richard Clarke taught, 

“Work is a blessing from God. It is a fundamental principle of salvation, both spiritual and temporal. When Adam was driven from his garden home, he was told that his bread must be produced by his physical toil, by the sweat of his brow. Note carefully the words: “Cursed shall be the ground for thy sake” (Moses 4:23) that is, for his good or benefit. It would not be easy to master the earth; but that was his challenge and his blessing, as it is ours.

We are cocreators with God. He gave us the capacity to do the work he left undone, to harness the energy, mine the ore, transform the treasures of the earth for our good. But most important, the Lord knew that from the crucible of work emerges the hard core of character.”