Sorensens’ Visit Inspires Students

Written by Mike Middleton

John and Stephanie Sorensen (Laguna Niguel, CA) met with law school students at a lunch they sponsored on February 3 in the Student Commons, which is named for the couple. John’s inspiring remarks helped students recognize how their testimonies can and should shape and guide their professional careers.

Referring to his own, well-worn copies of “The Lord’s Way” and “The Power Within Us,” John encouraged students with quotes from Dallin H. Oaks, Henry B. Eyring, and President Russell M. Nelson, as well as his own insights and experiences. “Each and every one of us can and will—if we ‘trust in the Lord with all our hearts’—be blessed and guided,” he shared.

John encouraged students to embrace challenges, reminding them that while God always prepares a way, it is usually a way through our hard times, not by making the very situations He is allowing to prove and strengthen us disappear. Success, while seldom immediate, comes through faith and dedication in our legal and personal journeys.

Nephi Dummar, a 2L from Rexberg, ID, who attended this event, said, "I loved getting to hear from the Sorensens! No longer were they just a picture on the wall, but real, humble, charitable people who stayed after their presentation to meet one-on-one with students. I am so grateful to have their gracious support in attending BYU Law.”

Like other members of the Clark Court, the Sorensens are dedicated to the success of BYU Law Students. Their involvement and generosity make a difference at the Law School, as well as for other priorities on campus. 

See below for his full remarks.

John L. Sorensen Remarks to BYU Law Students, Faculty, and Administration

In the few minutes we share, I wish to express my gratitude to be in your presence. Each of you are the “rising generation” to carry forth the mission of BYU Law and to assist in the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  

Each and every one of us, can and will—if we “trust in the Lord with all [our] hearts” (Proverbs 3:5)—be blessed and guided. You will be the distinguished and important present and future leaders in our homes, communities, workplaces, environments, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We love you!  

I invite you to think deeply and with great appreciation about the tremendous honor, as well as duty, we have to learn and to go forth to serve. We—you and I—have the glorious blessing to be a part of BYU Law. We have the solemn blessing, opportunity and duty to be the “gospel-centered” leaders of today, tomorrow, and for all of our years ahead.  Every day—even every hour—of our lives matter greatly because of our very special opportunity to participate here. Soon you will be a life-long graduate of BYU Law. I believe BYU Law School is the greatest law school in the world because it is centered in and on the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, each of us need to be very in tune with the accountability we have before God, and our fellow sisters and brothers throughout the whole world, for being a part of BYU Law.  

President Dallin H. Oaks was serving as BYU President when BYU Law School was created and admitted its first students in 1973. President Oaks has greatly affected and blessed my life, as I have strived to follow his counsel as a prophet, seer, and revelator.   

I hold here in my hand a well-worn copy of his book written in 1991, “The Lord’s Way.” I purchased it August 2, 1996.  It has traveled with me many places over the past almost 30 years.  I strongly encourage you to obtain your own copy of it and reference it frequently in your practice of law and daily living.

A few years later, in 2004, President Oaks gave a life-directing speech here at BYU entitled: “Where Will It Lead?” I strongly, strongly with all the conviction I can admonish, invite us to read, and re-read, this speech. In fact, I invite us to make it a hallmark of our professional lives, daily business and legal practices, and personal life now, and for the rest of our lives. His message is so direct, and so applicable right now, every hour—day and night—right now. It is filled with love for us!  

Each of you, whether as a student, faculty member, or part of the BYU Law administration were invited to this outstanding, Top 25 law school because of your overall outstanding character and academic greatness. These are God’s gifts to you. Congratulations!  We must always remember: “Where much is given is much is required” (D&C 82:3). We who have been entrusted by God with His gifts to us have a precious accountability before Him to do what He has entrusted us to do.

Academic Vice President Justin Collings, a former teacher and associate dean here, taught in his BYU Devotional address in 2022: “Never mistake your gifts for a special merit or an excuse from the requirements of righteousness. Goodness is better than greatness.  And the truest greatness, as President Joseph F. Smith observed, is ‘to do well those things God ordained to be the lot of all mankind.’”

Five years before I started my freshman year here at BYU in 1982, President Oaks gave a powerful message to the faculty and administration in an address called “A House of Faith.” Therein he teaches, “The first and greatest revelation of this dispensation on the subject of education was the 88th section of the Doctrine & Covenants.”  

For me personally, this is quite a statement, one that I have pondered over and thought to myself: “John, the greatest revelation on the subject of education (D&C 88) is now in our hands at virtually any time we pick up our scriptures, whether paper or electronic. All we have to do is read it.”

President Oaks states in this speech, “At the beginning of the 88th section, the Lord instructed His little flock in the most fundamental principle of all learning: All things were made by the power and glory of God and His Son, Jesus Christ (D&C 88:5, 7-10). He is the source of the light of the sun and of the light that quickens our understandings (D&C 88:7, 11). It is through Jesus Christ that we receive the light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God, who is in the midst of all things.” 

“This revelation also declares the purpose of learning in the Church Education System. It is that we may be prepared in all things when the Lord shall send us to magnify the calling whereunto He has called us, and the mission with which He has commissioned us (D&C 88:80). In other words, we receive enlightenment as stewards with a duty to use the knowledge to go out into the world to warn and bless the lives of the (Gentiles) people, and to prepare the saints for the hour of judgment which is to come.”

President Oaks continues: “The attitude that should motivate all our efforts in education is specified in the 67th verse of Section 88: ‘our eye should be single to the Glory of God.’” Then President Oaks states this short powerful sentence: “That short verse also contains the most significant promise ever given pertaining to education: ‘And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.’”

“In other words, (and here is  magnificent teaching President Oaks gives us to pour over again and again) those who achieve singleness of purpose in love of God and service in His Kingdom are promised that they will ultimately comprehend all things. The manner of learning that would fulfill this unique promise was revealed to Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail: ‘God shall give unto you knowledge by His Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been revealed since the world was until now’” (D&C 121:26).

President Oaks admonishes us: “One of the most distinctive characteristics of BYU in this day is our proud affirmation that character is more important than learning. We are preoccupied with behavior and consider personal worthiness to be an essential ingredient of our educational enterprise. That educational philosophy was revealed by God. Again and again the 88th section stresses the importance of worthiness for teacher and student.”

I am grateful to be with you!  To keep this worthiness in our hearts and minds, I encourage us as we study the law, to also study our patriarchal blessings routinely and closely for the guidance God has given and continues to give us in our lives. Equally important, we are instructed to “feast upon the words of Christ, for the words of Christ will teach [us] all things” (2 Nephi 32:3)

The word “trial” is used in many ways and expressions while in law school. Throughout your schooling here, and throughout all of our lives, we will experience “trials” of many different kinds.  I encourage us to study the words of our living prophets regarding trials, tribulations, and other difficulties. Our living leaders provide us outstanding guidance. I strongly encourage us to study the words of our living first presidency—President Nelson and his counselors— as well as those of the Quorum of the Twelve.  

For example, President Eyring provides us a magnificent road map of how to manage the “trials” of life in his book “To Draw Closer To God.” From Chapter 7, I quote: “One of the reasons why you will be tried is that opposition is always part of being a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You should expect that great difficulties will come to you in the pursuit of doing what the Lord would have you do. But you should also feel that these trials are a blessing, because ‘faith is the things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith’” (Ether 12:6). President Eyring continues, “I’d like to suggest something about how to receive through our trails the blessing that’s promised in that scripture. Perhaps you’re being tried right now, and you may feel like saying to me: ‘Well Brother Eyring, it’s pretty tough right now. Do you mean this is going to go on over a lifetime?’ And my answer is yes. It will be intermittent; there will be times where things go very badly, and there will be times when you think things are going wonderfully well. But the trials will continue. . . . If you’ll remember that the key to not being diverted from serving God is humility, then you’ll under-stand that some of those days where you thought things were going badly were a great blessing. You might not have sought them, but if you react to such days by recognizing your dependence on God, you could actually be in a better situation than if everything had gone extremely well. Too much success in fact could lead you into a more difficult trial because it could make you arrogant.”

I bear you my testimony that the Lord will always prepare a way for you to escape from the trials you will be given if you understand two things:  One is that you need to understand is that the escape will almost never be out of the trial; it will usually be through it. If you pray to have the experience removed all together you may not find the way prepared for you. Instead, you need to pray to find the way of deliverance through it.

In his book “The Power Within Us,” President Nelson gives us great wisdom (I received this book as a special gift in 1991, from humble, caring co-workers right before I was transferred away from them to another assignment in another state). President Nelson teaches us, “Many challenges have to be faced as we go through life” (pp 36-37). “We all must fortify ourselves against attacks on the leaders of the church. They have never purported to be perfect, or even close to it. In fact, the Lord describes them as ‘the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised.’  But, He continued, ‘they will thrash the nations by the power of my Spirit’” (D&C 35:13). Under brutal attacks by his critics, Joseph Smith said, “I never told you I was perfect—but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught—must I then be thrown away as a thing of naught?” (Words of Joseph Smith p 369).

President Nelson continues, “As we edify ourselves with education for the eternities, we must search the scriptures, liken them unto us, learn the law in the kingdom of our activities, and the standard works as literal standards of eternal excellence against which we measure every thought and deed.”

“Let us then each begin with the end in mind and shape our own destiny. Remember, the development of one’s career, family, and faith in God is an individual responsibility, one for each of us individually."

As I near conclusion of my remarks, I invite us to think about our professional careers and how our careers apply to this wonderful teaching by President Nelson:

He states in this book on page 29, “What would you like said about you at your funeral? Or if you were to write your own eulogy, and you could have only three sentences, what would you want to say?

If I were to write what I hope might be said about me, those three sentences would be:

1. I was able to render service of worth to my fellowmen. 

2. I had a fine family.

3. I evidenced unshakable faith in God and lived accordingly.”

I bear witness that as we study and live the words of our living Prophet, his counselors, and the living apostles and apply their teachings in our professional lives we will be led the right way. We should strive to emulate these Prophets, Seers, and Revelators, and the Sisters and Brothers who serve closely with them, in word and deed.  If we do, we will have lives of great joy, purpose, meaning, and happiness.  

The Lord loves you!  He loves us! He, our Savior, is our “Great Advocate” before the Father. Through His untiring and endless love, we can be all that He wants us to be. 

To this I testify, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.