Elder Bednar came to campus today to speak in Devotional as part of the Ground Breaking Ceremony for the Manwaring Center at BYU-Idaho. His message was short and bold: about why we gather. I watched from the Kirkham area.
His message was bold in the fact that he left an Apostolic warning to all of us: Students, Faculty, and the City of Rexburg. Since we have such a great blessing here at school with all of the facilities being expanded and build, Rexburg’s future definitely has extreme potential. However, Elder Bednar stated that, ‘in the very day that we have and allow Intellectual Arrogance to exist among ourselves, the Spirit of the Lord will be withdrawn and the Spirit of Ricks will be near extinct.’ Wow, I was humbled by that promise and I truly hope that years from now, when BYU-I is still doing great things, that we can remain humble and remember what blessing we have here. Elder Bednar also said: “Please be grateful for the singular opportunity you have to learn and work here – and for the responsibility that rests upon you as one who has been the recipient of great blessings.”
(From The BYUI News Release:) Elder Bednar concluded with a promise to students, faculty, employees, administrators and the community that if they were to be intellectually modest, humble, grateful, obedient, and frugal “this university will shine forth ever brighter as a beacon of righteousness and of inspired educational innovation.”
One cool thing was that after the dedicatory prayer they let the students participate in shoveling the dirt. Sterling and I bumped into each other:
