Covenants and Service: Shoring Up Your Foundation

It never gets old being up here and seeing all of you amazing students. Class of 2026, you look absolutely amazing! As the president of BYU, I feel as if God has given me eyes to see your potential, and you each have brighter futures than you can possibly imagine.

When President Russell M. Nelson invited me to serve in this role, my wife, Wendy, and I had the privilege of visiting with him at the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As we entered President Nelson’s office in Salt Lake City, we were both struck by the amazing view of the historic Salt Lake Temple. Even while undergoing intensive renovations, the temple was still magnificent.

As you might know, the recent renovations to the temple have focused on creating a new foundation that will allow the nearly 200-million-pound temple to remain virtually unmoved even as the earth might quake or tremor around it.

During our time together in President Nelson’s office, he offered treasured counsel. And just before we were set to leave, the prophet paused and gestured toward the temple, saying, “Tether those students to Jesus Christ and shore up their foundation, just as we have done with this temple.”

President Dallin H. Oaks visited this campus in February. He stood at this very pulpit and encouraged us “to focus on developing our faith in God and in the mission of His Son, Jesus Christ.” This, he said, would require “daily trying, one step at a time.”¹

As Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught, “We need to consistently and constantly reinforce our spiritual foundations to repair our spiritual erosion and gaps in our faith.”² He also said, “Nothing invites the Spirit more than when we center our lives on Jesus Christ. That is the foremost way to repair our spiritual erosion and close the gaps in our faith.”³

Class of 2026, during your time here, you have built on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ. As a statistician, I’ve seen the numbers! Now don’t roll your eyes because I’m going to talk about statistics. As far as I’m concerned, until this commencement ends, you are all still my students. So buckle up, the ride is not yet over.

Each year, BYU conducts an exit survey of our graduating seniors. And each year we ask some version of this same question: “Has your time at BYU strengthened your faith in Jesus Christ and in His living prophets and apostles?” It has been encouraging to see positive responses to this question increase. But this year—your class, the class of 2026—reported the highest percentage I’ve seen since we’ve been tracking this metric! [A chart diagramming the increasing percentages over the years was shown.]

But it’s not just in the numbers that I see this increase. It is in the joy in your eyes. It is in the way you teach and mentor each other in the classroom. It is in how you represent yourselves and this university in academic conferences, in athletic competitions, and in the performing arts. It is in how you serve on this campus and well beyond.

You see, under every mortarboard here today is an individual story about how you have grown, overcome, and become during your time here on this campus. As with the foundation of the Salt Lake Temple, you are building a foundation that can withstand the shakes and tremors of life because your foundation is sure, steady, and anchored in truth.

Now, as you go forth to serve the world over, let me offer just two pieces of advice while you’re still under some obligation to listen to me.

1. Stay true to the covenants and promises that bind you to God and that center your life on Jesus.

In the weeks leading up to his passing, Karl G. Maeser, the founder of Brigham Young University, visited Maeser Elementary School right here in Provo, Utah. He walked up to a chalkboard in each of four rooms and left the following bits of wisdom for the students. He wrote, in part:

• “This life is one great object lesson to practice on the principles of immortality and eternal life.”⁴
• “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”⁵
• “Man grows with his higher aims.”⁶

The students and teachers never erased those sayings from those chalkboards, and, to this day, three of them remain in our university archives, preserved with the original chalk written by Karl Maeser’s hands.

Graduates, your covenants—your sacred promises to God—are your higher aims. You will grow as you stretch toward them. Tie yourself to them, and they will pull you closer to God. They will tether you to God and to your most cherished relationships. On your hero’s journey, they may even protect you from unsafe shores.

In Homer’s Odyssey, the protagonist Ulysses famously had his crew tie him to the mast of the ship so he wouldn’t be tempted to go astray. If you studied film at BYU rather than literature, you may be more familiar with the image of the incomparable Bill Murray similarly tied to the mast in the 1991 classic film What About Bob?

Tying yourself to covenants won’t just help you avoid temptation; it will pull you toward greater love, grace, virtue, goodness, and mercy. It will lift you to become far greater than you can imagine. Your growth in your studies, in your character, and in your relationships will transcend beyond just the here and now.

I saw how this happened recently in a most unexpected place. You see, my wife and I were pulling into Portland, Oregon, anticipating a big BYU basketball game. Late at night, after a long flight and a long day here on campus, I was struggling while checking into our hotel well past midnight when someone said, “I want to introduce you to this family. They’ve come here to watch the basketball game.”

As this family walked up, I noticed that it was a mom with a whole bunch of children of varying ages in tow. As we started visiting with this mother, I soon found out that her husband—and the father of their children—had passed away only a couple of days earlier. This family was there at the basketball game to honor their father, who had wanted more than anything else to watch BYU play during March Madness.

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why this heartbroken wife and mother, with all of her children in tow, would show up at this basketball game. She was there with a missionary who had come home early so he could be at his father’s funeral, with a newly born grandchild, and with a thirteen-year-old son who was clearly heartbroken at the loss of his dad.

But then I heard the answer in something she said. “I know,” she said, “that he’s going to ask us if we made his wish come true when we see him again.”

As I got to my room, still thinking about this family, it struck me more fully that this wife and mother had a perfect knowledge that she was in fact going to see her husband again. She knew that she was eternally tied to that relationship—to her relationship with her husband and to her relationship with the Savior Jesus Christ—forever. She knew that the sting of death was truly overcome. She knew that the victory of the grave was completely obliterated because of Christ’s miraculous and infinite Resurrection. And she knew that her covenants would lift her, along with her loved ones, heavenward.

So, my young friends, please stay true to your covenants that lift you heavenward to God, to Jesus Christ, and to your loved ones forever.

2. Serve and love others every day and be willing and humble enough to have others serve you back.

Now I imagine there are some of you who are already thinking, “President, I have no problem being humble enough to let my mom and dad serve me.” If you’re thinking this, then maybe we should keep you here for a few more classes. And, yes, I can see some of the parents out there nodding their heads in agreement.

In all sincerity, I’m amazed by how so many of you serve and care for one other here at BYU and also for those beyond the boundaries of this campus. Several weeks ago, I received a letter from a local Provo pastor. He wrote:

I often think of a mantra . . . my grandmother . . . used to say: “The second greatest thing you can do in your life is to serve others, but the number one thing you can do is to provide opportunities for others to serve.” With that goal in mind, our church puts out a weekly call for volunteers to assist with the cleaning. Almost without fail, we are joined by a group of dedicated, hardworking BYU students who give up a significant portion of their Saturday to help clean a church building that is not part of their own denomination.

I have been meaning to write to you for a long time to express my gratitude. These students are incredible young people. They are always inquisitive, asking thoughtful questions about the history of our building as well as about our doctrine and beliefs. Though we do have some repeat volunteers, the groups do change every week. No matter who they are, they consistently give those of us in the congregation great hope for the future. . . . It is truly inspiring.⁷

Now this is what it looks like to “go forth to serve.”

Prophets of God have repeatedly taught on this campus that we gain an education so that we might serve others more effectively. You have entered to learn; now is your time to use that precious knowledge for the benefit of others. As you do so, you will sense God’s love for His children and also God’s love for you.

Acts of service need not be grand. Indeed, the most profound acts of kindness are often those that seem simplest. Brother Sean R. Dixon of the Young Men general presidency recently highlighted this memorable counsel from Professor James Q. Wilson of UCLA. Professor Wilson was the BYU commencement speaker in 1994—the very same year I graduated from BYU.

His words changed our paradigm:

Commencement speakers are supposed to urge you to rise to the highest challenge, pursue the impossible dream, excel at the loftiest ambitions. I will not do that. It is too easy; it is too empty. The easiest thing to do is to support great causes, sign stirring petitions, endorse grand philosophies. The hardest thing to do—and it is getting harder all of the time—is to be a good husband, a good wife, a strong father, a strong mother, an honorable friend and neighbor.

The truly good deeds are the small, everyday actions of ordinary life. The employee who gives an honest day’s work . . . ; the stranger who stops to help someone in need; the craftsman who builds each house as if he were going to live in it himself . . . ; the father who wants the respect of his children more than admission to the executive suite; the mother who knows that to care for an infant is not an admission of professional failure . . . ; the hiker who carries his own trash out of the park . . . —these are the heroes of everyday life. May you join their ranks.⁸

You graduates of the class of 2026 are indeed “the salt of the earth.”⁹ Jesus said:

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.¹⁰

At the April 2026 general conference, Elder Clark G. Gilbert of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shared a special moment from President Dallin H. Oaks’s February devotional here at BYU.¹¹ The Marriott Center appeared completely full prior to the devotional with President Oaks. Every section and row looked packed with students. Some students were even being turned away at the door. There were, in fact, scattered seats still open, but the ushers were struggling to identify them in this vast space and were trying to guide students to the right spots.

Then something truly beautiful occurred. Students who had already found a seat began turning on their phone flashlights to indicate that there was a seat vacant next to them. Students were literally shining lights, guiding others to hear the words of a prophet—words that would inspire them and lift them and direct them to Jesus Christ.

Class of 2026, go let your light so shine! This year, as part of our 150th anniversary as a university, we have been celebrating gifts of light. As the president of this university, I’ve seen your light. As a faculty member, I’ve seen your light. And, most tenderly of all, as a father of a son in this graduating class today, I see your light.

Forgive me as I speak as a parent—and on behalf of all the parents—in saying we love you and we are so proud of you. We see your light shining, and we pray that it never dims. As you stay true to your covenants, as you keep your foundation in Christ, and as you serve in ways big and small, your light will shine brighter and brighter in a world that so desperately needs illumination.

I pray the Lord’s choicest blessings on each one of you. Congratulations, class of 2026—and “Go Cougs!”

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