By Jeffrey R. Holland
No amount of university education, or any other kind of desirable and civilizing experience in this world, will help us at the moment of our confrontation with Christ if we have not been able–and are not then able–to yield, yield all that we are, all that we have, and all that we ever hope to have to the Father and the Son.
I think that is why Jacob says to be learned–or, we would presume, to be any other worthy thing–is good if one hearkens unto the counsels of God. But education, or public service, or social responsibility, or professional accomplishment of any kind is in vain if we cannot, in those crucial moments of pivotal personal history, submit ourselves to God even when all our hopes and fears may tempt us otherwise. We must be willing to place all that we have–not just our possessions (they may be the easiest things of all to give up), but also our ambition and pride and stubbornness and vanity–we must place it on the altar of God, kneel there in silent submission, and willingly walk away.
Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Will of the Father in All Things,” Devotional Address, Jan. 17, 1989
WEB: The full text of this speech is available at speeches.byu.edu
