Elder Stephen Biddulph, Service Missionary for BYU-Hawaii’s Counseling Services, delivered a devotional address in the McKay Auditorium on July 1 in which he taught the students to use trying experiences and sacrifice as a way to shape their souls and strengthen their testimonies.
To help illustrate his point, Elder Biddulph shared two experiences from his own life, which he said were “critical moments of shaping.” Before telling the stories, he told students five truths they should consider:
• The Lord’s purpose is to exalt us. “We are His work and His glory. He is the Master Sculptor whose hands shape and mold our mortal clay. If we are soft and submissive to the touch of His divine hand, He will form us into exalted shapes.”
• The Lord shapes us by experience and response. “Experience is given for our growth. What matters is not what we experience, but how we respond to experience. Bitterness, distrust, and self-defeating behaviors harden us. Faith, humility, and submissiveness keep our clay soft and malleable.”
• Shaping requires our personal and intimate participation. “Exaltation requires the sacrifice of our hearts and souls,” he said. “The Savior’s words to the Nephites after his resurrection are instructive: And ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood, yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, and ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit.” (3 Nephi 9:19-20)
• Covenants are stepping-stones to exaltation. “Covenants made with our Heavenly Father help us endure the shaping process. It is in the making and keeping of covenants that we sanctify ourselves, and qualify to be in the presence of our Heavenly Parents and receive promised blessings. The conditions of such covenants are not always easy to fulfill.”
• Faith in Jesus Christ and the power of His Atonement is essential for exaltation. “Without faith in Jesus Christ, we cannot draw upon the power of the Atonement, nor be healed from the sorrows, the pains, and the mistakes that are a necessary part of the mortal experience.”
Elder Biddulph explained for 20 years he was an active-duty Marine, stationed all over the United States when, in 1972, he was unexpectedly sent to Vietnam. With one hour’s notice, he left Sister Biddulph, six months pregnant, with two young boys, not knowing if they would see each other again.
During the early part of his time there, he told of how his refusal of a Vietnamese beer and his promise to keep the Word of Wisdom allowed him to overcome a serious sickness and make a 12-hour march at one point, and later how he lived through experiences that nearly ended his life: “I knew without a doubt that the Lord had kept His promises to me because I had kept my promise,” he said.
During a suicide mission behind enemy lines, Elder Biddulph was shot through both legs and many other members of his battalion were killed or seriously wounded. While he was hiding in a hut, his battalion came under attack by an enemy tank. Realizing the next round would kill him, he turned to prayer: “I spoke with Heavenly Father as if He were lying right next to me. In those moments of prayer, I felt no fear of death, not even violent, painful death. I had a perfect faith that if my body were destroyed, my spirit would yet live. In fact, I saw it happening in my mind, and I felt no terror.”
Elder Biddulph promised the Lord if he were allowed to live, he would be the best father and husband he could possibly be. His prayer was answered when he was miraculously rescued before the next round hit and destroyed his hiding place. He taught, “So why did the Lord honor my promise and not others? There are no answers for such a question. Questions of why are not the right ones to ask. Better questions are how and what: How can I use this experience to become a better person? What can I learn from this experience to help me and others?”
Many years later, while on a business trip, Elder and Sister Biddulph received a phone call from their bishop in Utah telling them their son and four of his best friends, all recently returned missionaries, had been in a fatal auto accident and three of the young men had been killed, but they weren’t sure about the status of their son. The flight back to Utah was difficult, he explained, and he turned to prayer just as he had in Vietnam.
Rather than revelations and answers, Elder Biddulph said “remarkable questions came to my mind in answer to my pleadings.” He recalled he was asked by the Lord, “If I have taken your son, will you be angry with me? If your son is dead, as you say, do you believe that he will live again? I gave you my Son. Will you not give me yours?” These powerful questions helped Elder Biddulph to remember covenants he had made. “I knew that I would give to God whatever he asked, even my son. For I had made covenants to sacrifice and consecrate all to the Father, and Sister Biddulph and I had made the decision long before to always faithfully give to the Lord what he asked of us.”
Concluding their son was dead, Elder and Sister Biddulph returned home to find their son Greg was in surgery to save his life while his best friend, RJ, had been the other one killed. He said Greg and the other survivor, Mike, lost their best friends, “but neither of them ever questioned the Lord of became despondent. They accepted the accident with complete faith in the Resurrection, despite deep, personal loss.”
“The trials of our lives are designed to make us fit for the Kingdom of God. It is not an easy thing to make a God out of a man,” Elder Biddulph said. “It takes faith, repentance, making and keeping holy covenants, and faithful endurance.
"God’s purpose is to exalt you and me, and He shapes us by experience and response to experience. This shaping requires our personal and intimate participation. Covenants help us endure the shaping process by anchoring our souls to Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ and the power of His Atonement is essential for exaltation.”
“I encourage you to turn toward the Lord and come unto him in your trials. Let his shaping hand fit you for the kingdom of God. Let no mortal experience destroy or scar you spiritually. You are a child of God and you have a divine nature and destiny. May you find that destiny through the experiences of your lives.”
-Photo by Monique Saenz