BYU NewsNet - BYU-Hawaii president stresses righteous choices

Steven C. Wheelwright, president of BYU-Hawaii, taught students about agency and its connection to righteous decision making at Tuesday’s devotional.

“Agency and the ability to make our decisions on our own are a great blessing bestowed by a loving Heavenly Father on each of his sons and daughters,” he said. “While agency is a powerful eternal principle, our approach to decision making can be considered its mortal embodiment.”

Recognizing the types and the amount of decisions students currently face, Wheelwright said seeking guidance from the Lord in decision making would provide for positive results.

“At this busy intersection of adolescence and adulthood, you are experiencing one of the highest per diem decision rates that you will ever face in mortality,” he said. “If you learn to make decisions according to the Lord’s process you will form one of the habits most critical to both your earthly success as well as eternal success.”

He explained the two paths individuals could take, either the world’s or the Lord’s way.

In making a decision, he said factors such as perspective and attitude play an important part in the outcome.

Citing Proverbs 3:5-6, Wheelwright said while pursuing the world’s method was to be trusting in one’s own understanding, following the Lord’s process required putting trust in the Lord even when his direction was not understood.

Wheelwright explained this concept through an analogy of C.S. Lewis comparing mortal life to a house undergoing renovations. The Lord begins His work making sensible changes but as time continues the changes seem more drastic until the observer realizes that the Lord seeks to go beyond a mortal’s expectations of himself, making the ordinary extraordinary, a cottage into a palace, he said.

“Left to our own understanding, we are unintentionally … unsteady,” he said. “But through trusting in the Lord with humility, gratitude and faith, we are blessed and prosper.”

As an example of how righteous decision making blesses lives, Wheelwright spoke of the life of Joseph of Egypt.

“In spite of being sold into slavery by his own flesh and blood, Joseph trusted in the Lord,” he said. “He did not follow the world’s process of decision making; rather he remained fully committed in the Lord’s way.”

Wheelwright also mentioned Ruth, Job, Esther and Nephi as examples of those who prospered by trusting the Lord.

“They chose to trust in the Lord rather than lean to their own understanding,” he said. “By so doing they were blessed with safety and peace just as we will be.”

Wheelwright said righteous decision making not only resulted in prosperity but also development of character.

“Building our character is certainly part of the Lord’s process of building us into a palace,” he said. “Trusting in the Lord actually becomes an upward spiral. When we trust in the Lord, our faith and character are strengthened. The stronger our character and the deeper our faith the better we are able to trust in the Lord and so on, all resulting in better decision making.”

Referring to his experiences in struggling as a young man in making righteous decisions, Wheelwright said it was not until after his mission experience and marriage that he saw the importance of trusting in the Lord.

He said he and his wife Margaret formed a habit in making decisions.

“I testify to you that one of the great blessings of forming this habit as young adults is that in later years the Lord will know that he can trust you to respond to the directions of his spirit,” he said,

In closing, Wheelwright pressed upon students to focus on eternal perspectives using our agency in making righteous decisions.

“Rather than focusing on ease and prestige, may we concentrate on eternal considerations as we make life’s daily decisions,” he said. “Like Saul on the road to Damascus may we each ask the Lord ‘What would you have me do?’”