Elder Kearon Encourages High Achievers to Balance Service With Stillness

Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints directed a message of peace and love to high achievers tempted to tie their self-worth to productivity and success: “My wish is that you and I might slow down and turn more easily and comfortingly to Christ, and bask in His promised peace,” he said.

Speaking during the campus devotional at Brigham Young University on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, during BYU Education Week, the Apostle, who was accompanied by his wife, Jennifer, acknowledged the doubts of the “hardworking, earnest, faithful and devoted” Saints that their “best can ever be good enough.”

“A truth I hope will sink deeply into your soul is that your best is certainly good enough, that you are loved more than you can imagine, and that it isn’t your achievements that define you, far less that determine anything about your worth or how you are seen by your Father in Heaven,” he said.

Not all work can be measured, and focusing too much on to-do lists and final achievements can reduce peace and the enjoyment of the process, he taught.

“Our praise for — and delight in — personal accomplishment keeps our eyes focused on us: our efforts, our lessons, our hustle. This puts us at the center of the story that our Savior is meant to occupy, and reliance on ourselves and not on Him.”

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Being Peaceful

Elder Kearon related how his young granddaughter delighted for 15 minutes in blowing a feather into the air. “Her thrill at this most simple of pleasures brought joy to all of us observing this beautiful moment.”

Children and adults need precious time to slow down, wonder, daydream and marvel, he taught. “We are children of God made to create and progress and grow. But achievement for the sake of achieving does not result in a lasting peace.”

While goals “keep us focused on things that really matter,” we shouldn’t let them consume us, he said. “Can we be at peace just being peaceful?”

We can learn from the Savior’s examples of how to interweave work with peaceful contemplation. Throughout his ministry, Jesus often withdrew to be alone and pray. He even rested during a storm, while his terrified disciples stood by. He then calmed the wind and waves with the command, “Peace, be still.” 

“My storms are often of my own making,” Elder Kearon acknowledged. “I whip myself up and forget that the Master of all the elements is right at my side with power to calm, resolve, repair, enlighten, and heal.”

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Sitting and Attending

Elder Kearon used the New Testament account of sisters Martha and Mary to show that “our discipleship, in fact, needs both service and stillness.”

“This is a story about a hard-working disciple,” who was involved in “the sacred work of her loving ministry to the Messiah, whom she has invited into her home,” he said. But Martha “was being dragged about, worried and overworked — by her ministry.”

“She has spent hours serving Him, but she comes out of it wondering whether He loves her. That is what happens if our service competes with our communion with Him,” he said.

Mary, “sitting on the floor, listening,” is a model of “what it means to love God,” he taught. “Sitting and attending are necessary parts of discipleship, and for many of us, that is harder than the hands-on service.”

He added, “We will also sometimes need to get the food made and the interviews done, but let’s do that after we have made time to sit and focus on the Savior’s words. We want to be the disciple who does the one thing that is needful: sit and listen to Jesus.”

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The Sabbath and Trusting in the Slow Work of God

“The Sabbath is rich in opportunity to slow down, to balance, or to retrain our focus,” Elder Kearon said. What makes the day holy is that it is when God rested. “One important element of holiness, so integral that it is one of the Ten Commandments, is resting on the Lord’s holy day.”

He notes that “God’s work in us is often slow, very slow, because we are not always quick to learn and to change. Can we allow ourselves to be a work in progress and incomplete, trusting in God’s timing and in our own inherent ability to grow?”

Referring to Doctrine and Covenants 123:17, Elder Kearon said that “we are to cheerfully do everything in our power, and then stand still, slow down, be at rest and at peace, even in our incompleteness. And God will come through. He always does.”

“If I have a wish for you, it is that you will find peace in your actual life — not the life you think you would have if you were able to finish your to-do list, have three extra hours in a day, and finally achieve your goals.”

Receiving the Gift of Charity

Elder Kearon said the one thing we don’t achieve ourselves is charity, referring to the 2026 theme of Education Week found in Moroni 7:47. Elder Kearon read the scripture with the previous verse: “Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail — but charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him” (Moroni 7:46-47).

He added, “All things must fail — every project you are behind on, every list you finally finish, every achievement any of us has spent ourselves on, in the end, will not last forever. Only charity endures forever, and it ascends with us.”

Our prayerful efforts can only prepare us for God’s gift to us, he taught. “There is no “try-harder” button that produces the love of Christ. There is no plan, no goal, no target, no course of study, however excellent, that will manufacture it. We do not build it. We receive it, from Him, at His hand.”

With his back to a screen displaying a painting of daffodils, Elder Kearon shared the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” by William Wordsworth, in which the poet describes seeing a “a host of golden daffodils” and experiences even greater pleasure when he later recalls the memory of them.

“[God]loves you so,” Elder Kearon concluded. “I believe that none of us have any idea really of the depth of His love and care. I testify of this and pray that you will reflect on these thoughts and be touched, and when appropriate, slowed, and that you will reflect on Him and His love and sacrifice, and his, our Savior’s, rising again.”

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