UAC

“The Church from the beginning has been committed to the principle that ‘the glory of God is intelligence.’ We therefore encourage out people to study and prepare to render service with their minds and with their hands.”

—Spencer W. Kimball

Here at BYU, we often take it for granted that unlimited spiritual resources are at our finger tips. We are surrounded by the best of the best, men and women striving to live the best they can and follow the commandments. We are bombarded with the Spirit in classrooms, lectures, and in our homes.
The following are some inspirational and helpful quotes and links for assisting you in maintaining your spiritual goals and aspirations.

Education for Real Life

Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Click here to read the full talk
From a talk given on the 75th anniversary of the Institute of Religion programat a Church Educational System fireside in Moscow, Idaho, on 6 May 2001.
Putting spiritual learning first gives our secular learning purpose.

Seek Learning to Serve God

The thirst for education that comes with the change the gospel brings can be a blessing or a curse, depending on our motives. If we continue to seek learning to serve God and His children better, it is a blessing of great worth. If we begin to seek learning to exalt ourselves alone, it leads to selfishness and pride, which will take us away from eternal life.

Spiritual Learning Gives Purpose to Secular Learning

If we will keep spiritual learning in its proper place, we will have to make some hard choices of how we use our time. But there should never be a conscious choice to let the spiritual become secondary as a pattern in our lives. Never. That will lead to tragedy. The tragedy may not be obvious at first, nor may it ever be clear in mortal life. But remember, you are interested in education, not just for mortal life but for eternal life. When you see that reality clearly with spiritual sight, you will put spiritual learning first and yet not slight the secular learning. In fact, you will work harder at your secular learning than you would without that spiritual vision.

God Knows What We Need to Know

Your service may not be in what the world would recognize as a lofty calling. When the real value of service becomes clear in the judgment of God, some people who worked in quiet anonymity will be the real heroes. Many of them, perhaps most of them, will be the underpaid and under recognized people who nurtured others.

Learning Should Never Stop

Our education must never stop. If it ends at the door of the classroom on graduation day, we will fail. And since what we will need to know is hard to discern, we need the help of heaven to know which of the myriad things we could study we would most wisely learn. It also means that we cannot waste time entertaining ourselves when we have the chance to read or to listen to whatever will help us learn what is true and useful. Insatiable curiosity will be our hallmark.

God Can Multiply the Effectiveness of Our Time

There is another way to look at your problem of crowded time. You can see it as an opportunity to test your faith. The Lord loves you and watches over you. He is all-powerful, and He promised you this: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33).
That is a true promise. When we put God’s purposes first, He will give us miracles. If we pray to know what He would have us do next, He will multiply the effects of what we do in such a way that time seems to be expanded. He may do it in different ways for each individual, but I know from long experience that He is faithful to His word.

Real Life is Eternal Life

The real life we’re preparing for is eternal life. Secular knowledge has for us eternal significance. Our conviction is that God, our Heavenly Father, wants us to live the life that He does. All we can learn that is true while we are in this life will rise with us in the Resurrection. And all that we can learn will enhance our capacity to serve. That is a destiny reserved not alone for the brilliant, those who learn the most quickly, or those who enter the most respected professions. It will be given to those who are humbly good, who love God, and who serve Him with all their capacities, however limited those capacities are—as are all our capacities, compared with the capacities of God.

Winding Up Our Spiritual Clocks-

Elder Dean L. Larsen
Click here to read the whole talk

To maintain our spiritual vigor there are five activities
we need to remember because without these influences in our lives,
our spiritual clocks wind down:

Prayer
“Earnest, sincere prayer is an essential ingredient in maintaining spiritual tone.”

Scripture Study
“The testimonies that can be borne to the value of scripture study are numerous. There is a special power in the scriptures. Scripture study, combined with daily, purposeful prayer, can provide much of the resolution that is necessary today to offset the influences so prevalent in the world that lead us into forbidden ways.”

Sabbath worship
“There is something essential about joining together with other believers to worship, to sing, to pray, to learn of God’s will for us, and to acknowledge his goodness to us. He has commanded t hat this should be so.”

Partaking of the sacrament
“One of the most effective ways to wind up our spiritual clocks is to worship on the Sabbath day and partake of the sacrament.”

Service
“Any one who has unselfishly given of himself in service to another can testify of the lift that comes to the giver. We need this reinforcement to our spiritual well-being. When we cast our bread upon the water in this sense, it inevitably comes back to us in even greater abundance.”

WORKSHOP

Motivational Stories

MISSION CALLS

Inspirational Thoughts
“Education has always been recognized by the church as the number one obligation of each generation to its successor and of each individual to himself. Each one of us is a divinely endowed, eternal, and intelligent being. It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to encourage and keep alive the questioning spirit, to learn and to continue to learn everything possible about ourselves, our fellow men, our universe, and our God.”

-Hugh B. Brown-

“God has chosen us out of the world and has given us a great mission. I do not entertain a doubt myself but that we were selected and fore-ordained for the mission before the world was, that we had our parts allotted to us in this mortal state of existence as our Savior had his assigned to him.”

-George Q. Cannon-