Speeches by Topic Topics | Sacred
I appreciate this opportunity very much. I am grateful for my loving wife of nearly 41 years, who is sitting near me on the stand today. She is a pillar of great strength in all that we do. I also acknowledge the attendance of family and friends and appreciate their support.
I was reflecting on the many special occasions I have experienced here in this building. My wife and I with our infant son moved here to BYU in January of 1971—nearly 40 years ago. The Marriott Center was just being completed at that time, and we were able to attend some of those early meetings and basketball gam
I have titled these remarks “A Sense of the Sacred,” by which I mean an appreciation and reverence for sacred things. Speaking of society in general, I am afraid that many of my generation have been remiss in transmitting to your generation a feeling for sacred things and an understanding of how to respect them.
To the extent possible, I hope to counteract some of the bad examples that are much in evidence around you. I hope to help you refine your ability to discern what is sacred and to respond with reverence for all that is holy.
The importance of having a sense of the sacr
This responsibility to speak to you never gets any easier for me. I think it gets more difficult as the years go by. I grow a little older, the world and its litany of problems get a little more complex, and your hopes and dreams become evermore important to me the longer I am at BYU. Indeed, your growth and happiness and development in the life you are now living and in the life you will be living in the days and decades ahead are the central and most compelling motivation in my daily professional life. I care very much about you now and forever. Everything I know to do at BYU i
