At a BYU-Idaho devotional Jan. 26, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve emphatically extolled the virtues and blessings of obtaining higher education, noting that by seeking advanced learning students not only prepare themselves for a career but for eternity as well.
"Please be true to yourself," Elder Nelson said. "Honor — yes, even demand — highest expectations from yourself. Pursue your education as a priority of the highest order. Gain all the education you can. With us as Latter-day Saints, education is a religious responsibility. 'The glory of God is intelligence' (Doctrine and Covenants 93:36). Your personal intelligence — your personal identity — is everlasting and divine (see Doctrine and Covenants 93:29)."
Seek education
According to Elder Nelson, students may experience their "own scholastic Sacred Grove equivalent," a moment of resolution to avidly obtain and absorb higher education. He reached back across several decades to share with students his own epiphany, the time he made a promise to himself to pursue a specific vocation.
"Many years ago, as an untrained teenager, I secured temporary employment at Christmastime," he recalled. "The work was dull, repetitive and monotonous. Each hour of the day passed slowly. I resolved then and there that I would obtain an education that would qualify me for more meaningful work in my life. I determined that I would become a doctor of medicine."
While serving as a stake president, Elder Nelson said he often engaged young people in conversation about their educational goals. In the course of such chats, they'd often ask of him how long it takes to become a physician. A disclosure by Elder Nelson that training to become a medical doctor might last as long as 13 years often elicited responses along the lines of, "That's too long for me!" But, as Elder Nelson pointed out to his BYU-Idaho audience, "Preparation for your career is not too long if you know what you want to do with your life. How old will you be 13 years from now if you don't pursue your education? Just as old, whether or not you become what you want to be!"
Beware of unbalance
On the heels of his admonition to seek higher learning, Elder Nelson sounded a stern warning to eager students: secular learning alone will never be sufficient to substantiate prolonged personal progress.
"While you search for education and wisdom, I need to offer a serious word of caution," he said. "Choose carefully what you will learn, whose teachings you will follow and whose purposes you will serve. And don't place all of your intellectual eggs in the solitary basket of secular learning.
"Remember this warning from the Book of Mormon: 'O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God' (2 Nephi 9:28–29)."
As an example of what can happen when the counsels of God are either set at naught or simply misunderstood, Elder Nelson noted that the proper method for preventing the spread of bacterial infection is contained in Leviticus 15. However, it wasn't until the latter part of the 19th century when the medical profession finally grasped that the spread of infection can by stymied by proper washing practices — just as Moses had recorded millennia before.
"In retrospect, I can now see that mankind's general and pervasive lack of knowledge of the scriptures has handicapped great numbers of people for long periods of time," Elder Nelson said. "The suffering that has resulted from such ignorance is truly tragic. …
"Our loving Heavenly Father clearly revealed, and His prophet faithfully recorded, the principles of clean technique in the handling of infected patients more than 3,000 years ago! These scriptures are in complete harmony with modern medical guidelines. But during those many millennia, how many mothers needlessly perished? How many children suffered because man's quest for knowledge had failed to incorporate the word of the Lord in that quest?"
Contemporary challenges
A plague endemic to modern times is the proliferation of persuasive voices seeking to gain precedence over eternal truths. Beware of such persuasion, Elder Nelson counseled.
"You and I know that many [threats] to happiness are wrong because they are contrary to God's will," he said. Yet they are championed by persuasive people possessing more ability than morality, more knowledge than wisdom. Their convenient rationalization provides self-consoling justification. But the Bible warns us that 'the way of a fool is right in his own eyes' (Proverbs 12:15). Indeed, individuals with ignorance of doctrine, or people with malignity of purpose, often wear the mask of honesty. So we must constantly be on guard."
Elder Nelson used the issue of global overpopulation to illustrate the juxtaposition of worldly wisdom against heavenly counsel. Many people of great influence attribute societal problems to having too many people presently living on earth. Conversely, the Lord has clearly spoken to the contrary: "For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare" (Doctrine and Covenants 104:17).
"My young brothers and sisters," he said, "to build a house straight and strong, you do not choose crooked boards. So to build your eternal destiny, you cannot — you must not — limit your lessons only to those lessons that are warped by the world to exclude the truth from God."
Wisdom found
Elder Nelson emphasized that learning, light and wisdom are blessings available to all humanity through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"Wisdom," he said, "is to be found in pure intelligence — in that divine light of the gospel which can guide people in all countries, all climes, and all continents. … Wise students throughout the world heed its light and enrich their education by adding the curriculum of Church seminaries and institutes. The Lord hides His wisdom from no one."
When heeded, the wisdom flowing from the one true source will safely conduct us to happiness in mortality and eternal life beyond the veil.
"Again we consider the question once asked by Job: 'Where shall wisdom be found?' (Job 28:12)," Elder Nelson said. "The answer: it emanates from the Lord. … It pulses and surges in the Lord's light of truth! With that light, He lifts us toward His glorious goal of eternal life, when we may dwell with Him forever."
