Joy Is Spreading Its Warmth

Come this next August I will have been teaching here at BYU for twelve years now. I’ve had between one hundred and fifty and two hundred students each semester and taught three semesters a years. That’s a lot of students, and it has been delightful. But lately the delight has been intensified as I’ve encountered some of those students and seen them walking in the ways of the Lord and doing the things the Lord would want them to do. That has brought me a delight and joy that I can’t even begin to put into words. 

A few months ago in Maryland I met a woman who had been my student when I was first teaching. She is now a mother of many, a bishop’s wife, and doing many things to promote good in the world. This last Sunday I was in another ward speaking and a woman cuddling a five month old baby introduced herself as a past student. The baby was her third child and she too is doing great things to serve the Lord. Also last week I received an email from a young man that was in my class two semesters before Grizelda. He left BYU shortly after that and attended another university, but wrote to tell me all he had been doing since he left BYU and he has done well.

I’ve felt this same joy a lot with my own children and know what John was talking about when he said, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4). However, I wasn’t expecting to find that kind of joy with students who I’m not as connected to. But it is there. I absolutely love hearing from past students, especially when I hear that they are Living in Truth and following the path of righteousness. Yes, joy is contagious. We can give it to others. Righteousness spreads its sunshine on others in many ways!