The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
One of the things that impressed BYU–Idaho students about the Sunday, March 9, devotional with Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Susan Bednar, was the format.
Instead of standing behind the pulpit and delivering remarks one at a time, the couple sat side by side in chairs near the I-Center auditorium’s large rostrum.
Without the aid of a script, teleprompter or notes, Elder and Sister Bednar simply engaged in a conversation with one another. With the Sunday evening devotional on the Rexburg, Idaho, campus taking place roughly a week prior to their 50th wedding anniversary, Elder and Sister Bednar recounted experiences — some tender, some lighthearted — and shared lessons they’ve learned about marriage and family over the last five decades.
“I really felt like I was just in their living room, and they were giving me advice and telling me about their lives,” said Dylan Nielsen, a junior studying business marketing.
The less-formal setup made the devotional feel “very close and personal,” despite there being roughly 12,000 people in the audience, commented BYU–Idaho student Savannah Cordray, a junior studying health psychology.
“They spoke to us as if we were their grandchildren, and they were reminiscing on all of the precious memories they’ve made over their 50 years of marriage,” said Cordray.
It was under Elder Bednar’s tenure as president that BYU–Idaho transitioned from a two-year college to a four-year university more than 20 years ago. The couple noted they were serving as the president and first lady of the school when they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.
Elder Bednar, who was ordained and set apart as an Apostle in 2004, told students, “Being here so close to our 50th anniversary, we could think of no place where we would feel more comfortable talking about these kinds of important, mortal and eternal issues than with all of you.”
Throughout the evening, the couple bore witness of the central role of the family in God’s plan, the importance of creating a marriage and a home that are centered on Jesus Christ, and the joy that can be found in those relationships.
Elder Bednar repeatedly emphasized that happiness in marriage and family life is not found. It is created. “My prayer is that every single one of you can hear that simple statement, that it will be confirmed in your heart as true by the power of the Holy Ghost, because it applies to you,” he said, once again emphasizing, “It is true, and it is for you.”
Creating happiness in marriage
Each Monday night for nearly eight years, the Bednars hosted student home evenings in Rexburg. Elder Bednar said they estimate they met with approximately 80,000 students during their tenure. A question that appeared nearly every week in some form centered around the “universal yearning” for a happy marriage and family life. Having witnessed or experienced the heartache of divorce and the breaking of covenants, many young people want hope or reassurance that such happiness is possible for them.
“We have learned that because you are afraid of that heartache, you search and search for the person who will guarantee that you will never again have that kind of heartache,” Elder Bednar observed.
Many people function under the false assumption that if they find the “right” person, they will be happy. “You do not find the marriage you want to have. You create it,” Elder Bednar declared.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
