‘Jesus is the answer’ to becoming something more, BYU President Shane Reese tells large student crowd

BYU is flourishing, an ebullient President Shane Reese said Tuesday as he and his wife, Sister Wendy Reese, delivered the school year’s opening devotional messages on the seventh day of fall semester.

The addition of thousands of new freshmen students into Provo’s streets and the Marriott Center’s seats makes him feel that it is really in the fall that “hope literally springs eternal,” he said joyfully.

He told 12,531 students, faculty and staff on Tuesday that they will flourish, too, if they recognize that “the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something,” quoting President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which sponsors the university.

“Wendy and I want to invite you to stretch this semester beyond just knowing. We want you to continue to become something special,” Reese said. “We see in you such a bright and hopeful future. We know you are here for a reason.”

Reese has made “Becoming BYU” the slogan of his presidency, which is in its second year. He said BYU is leaning even more deeply into its unique mission, “which insists that our ‘belief enhances our inquiry, study amplifies faith and revelation leads to deeper understanding.’”

For individuals, he said, “Becoming implies the need for development and growth. As we recognize our incompleteness and realize that we are meant to become something more, something better, something holier, we are ‘ in a preparation ’ to accept the gospel’s challenge to become.”

“Jesus Christ is our ultimate example of becoming,” Reese said. “He had a vision of his divine role as the Savior of the World. His vision for those to whom he ministered was majestic and inspiring. He built others. He aligned his will with his Father’s will exactly. He loved perfectly. He kept his covenants with the Father. As with all things, Jesus is the answer. His perfect life was and is the divine model for each of us.”

“I know that his atoning sacrifice will make it possible for you and me to become more than we can ever become by ourselves,” he added.

Reese shared three suggestions students could use to build a solid foundation for becoming — vision, effort and covenants. Sister Reese shared two ways students could move forward with positivity.

Have a crisp vision of what you want to become

Reese said doubt and fear obstruct becoming and suggested that a vision for the future is an antidote.

“Having a vision of what we can become empowers us with faith and confidence — two attributes of becoming — that help replace our doubts and fear — two deterrents to becoming,” he said. “Faith and confidence fuel additional steps in becoming, namely persistence, perspiration and effort.”

He used the term “crisp vision” and said having one is a starting point because it productively shapes work and effort.

Reese has told several stories about how overwhelmed he felt as a BYU student, and he shared another Tuesday. He said one of his mentors in statistics repeatedly told him she could see him becoming a member of the faculty. He found that an impossible idea, but she continued to say it.

“I could tell that she meant it,” he said.

He encouraged students to support each other.

“All of us sometimes need someone with a bolder vision for our future than we have for ourselves. And we all also need to reciprocate that blessing,” he said.

Pursue the vision of the future with persistence, perspiration and effort

Another way to combat fear and doubt is with effort, Reese said.

“None of us can avoid falling short, but we can all choose to give our best effort,” he said.

He kept a quote on his desk while writing his dissertation at Texas A&M: “The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work.”

Reese said President Russell M. Nelson, who turned 100 on Monday, is a blueprint “for working as though everything depends on us and praying as if everything depends on God” and quoted his statement about resolving to be resolute.

“The Lord loves effort. The Lord loves consistency. The Lord loves steadfastness,” President Nelson said. “While we surely will come up short from time to time, our persistent efforts to hear him and follow the inspiration he gives us will help us to ‘ wax strong in the Spirit .’”

Plug into the ‘Becoming Accelerator’

Reese said making and keeping covenants, commitments made to God at baptism and in Latter-day Saint temples, are an accelerator for becoming.

“Making and keeping covenants with God accelerates the process of becoming thanks to the special gift of love and mercy afforded to children of the covenant,” he said.

He noted that all three members of the First Presidency talked about the power of covenants at the church’s last general conference in April.

“President (Henry B.) Eyring shared an incredible witness and reminder that covenants can banish fear, doubt and uncertainty that can otherwise stifle our efforts to become what God wants us to become,” he said.

“Then President Oaks underscored the power of covenants in forging our personal integrity and accelerating our process of becoming something more” through being bound to Christ, he added.

President Nelson shared a promise that worshipping in the temple would bless each person’s life.

“Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world’s mists of darkness,” he said . “Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Atonement or help you understand God’s magnificent plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing!”

Sister Wendy Reese: ‘Boost your bright side’

Sister Reese began the devotional by joking about some of the challenges students face with a new semester, poking fun at her statistician husband with one of them.

“I’m sure most of you are hopeful you can find a way to avoid taking Stats 121,” she said. While the students laughed, she looked back and him and he smiled broadly and gestured that he couldn’t understand why someone would feel that way.

“What if I told you that positive thinking might be part of the solution to dealing with the many stresses and challenges inherent in a new semester,” she asked, citing Johns Hopkins University research that showed a strong link between positivity and health.

“The researchers suggest that smiling more, reframing stressful situations and building resiliency can help ‘boost your bright side,’” she said.

She shared two suggestions for harnessing the power of positivity — “seeking for good in our lives and turning our hearts to God.”

Seeking for the good in life

“The mere act of looking for the good in our lives is a positivity-producing action,” she said.

She noted that her mother’s positivity through multiple aneurysms and brain surgeries helped her and their family keep moving forward through difficult years.

“My mom is always cheerful. She always looks for the good in everything. She uses positive language,” she said. “Some of her favorite sayings are: ‘The Lord said to be of good cheer so that’s what we’ve got to do.’ ‘We just need to trust in the Lord’ or ‘All we can do is pray.’ And my favorite, ‘don’t fret your gizzard.’”

She said looking for the good in life maintains perspective.

“Those who look for the good are also able to find blessings in their trials and feel the peace that comes from the Savior,” she said.

Turning to God

“God wants you and me to be happy,” she added. “As you begin this semester full of all the accompanying emotions, I hope you will be intentional in seeking to be positive. Continuously ask yourself ‘How has God blessed my life? What tender mercies have I seen or felt? When have I felt him close by?’”

She played an audio quote from a 1974 BYU devotional given by the late church President Gordon B. Hinckley.

“The message of the Lord is one of hope and salvation. The voice of the Lord is a voice of glad tidings. The work of the Lord is a work of glorious and certain reward,” he said. “I do not suggest that you simply put on rose-colored glasses to make the world look rosy. I ask, rather, that you look above and beyond the negative, the critical, the cynical, the doubtful, to the positive.”

The Reeses’ goal for students, she said, is that “we want each of you to be successful in your studies as well as develop a stronger relationship with and testimony of Jesus Christ.”

“I pray that as you seek the good in life and turn your hearts to God that you will develop positivity and come closer to Jesus Christ,” she said.

Hannah Sanford, 18, a freshman from Liberty, Missouri, said she has enjoyed freshman orientation, during which Reese spoke to the freshman about becoming, and the first week of school.

“I like that the classes involve the gospel and the subject,” she said. “It’s never happened before for me, to have both taught together.”

Sanford said she appreciated Reese’s emphasis on vision, effort and covenants and that in response, she intends to re-read her patriarchal blessing , as Reese suggested, and read the scriptures more intently to try to become better.

The devotional can be viewed at BYUtv.org . The texts of their talks will be available soon on speeches.byu.edu .