Elder Kearon’s Education Week Message to Those Who Never Feel ‘Good Enough’

Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles urged Latter-day Saints to separate their sense of worth from productivity and achievement during a Brigham Young University devotional Tuesday, August 18, 2026. Speaking at the Marriott Center during BYU Education Week, he encouraged listeners to slow down, make room for stillness and place greater trust in Jesus Christ, according to a Church Newsroom release.

“My wish is that you and I might slow down and turn more easily and comfortingly to Christ, and bask in His promised peace,” Elder Kearon said. His wife, Jennifer Kearon, accompanied him to the devotional.

Worth Beyond Achievement

Elder Kearon addressed people he described as “hardworking, earnest, faithful and devoted” who still question whether their efforts measure up. He told them that achievement neither defines their worth nor determines how Heavenly Father sees them.

“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. He cautioned that an excessive focus on measurable results, completed tasks and personal accomplishment can diminish both peace and enjoyment of the work itself.

Elder Kearon also warned that a constant emphasis on individual effort can shift attention away from Jesus Christ. “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.”

Learning to Be Still

To illustrate the value of slowing down, Elder Kearon described watching his young granddaughter spend 15 minutes happily blowing a feather into the air. “Her thrill at this most simple of pleasures brought joy to all of us observing this beautiful moment,” he said.

He encouraged both children and adults to preserve time for wonder, daydreaming and quiet reflection rather than measuring every moment by productivity. “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.”

Goals still have a useful place because they help people focus on what matters, Elder Kearon said, but he warned against allowing them to dominate life. He posed a simple question to the audience: “Can we be at peace just being peaceful?”

Elder Kearon pointed to Jesus Christ as an example of balancing purposeful work with periods of withdrawal and prayer. He recalled that the Savior slept during a storm before calming both the elements and His frightened disciples with the words, “Peace, be still.”

“My storms are often of my own making,” Elder Kearon said. “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.”

Service and Communion

Elder Kearon used the New Testament account of Martha and Mary to teach that discipleship requires both action and stillness. Rather than criticizing Martha’s service itself, he focused on what happened when her work left her worried, overburdened and disconnected from the Savior she was serving.

“This is a story about a hard-working disciple,” Elder Kearon said, describing Martha’s efforts as “the sacred work of her loving ministry to the Messiah, whom she has invited into her home.” Yet he said Martha “was being dragged about, worried and overworked — by her ministry.”

The danger, he explained, comes when service begins to compete with direct communion with Christ. “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.”

Mary offered a different model by sitting and listening to Jesus, Elder Kearon said. “Sitting and attending are necessary parts of discipleship, and for many of us, that is harder than the hands-on service.”

He did not suggest abandoning necessary responsibilities, but instead placing time with the Savior ahead of constant activity. “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.”

Finding Peace in an Unfinished Life

Elder Kearon also pointed to the Sabbath as a recurring opportunity to slow down and reset priorities. He connected the holiness of the day with God’s own rest and described Sabbath observance as part of a broader pattern of deliberately stepping away from relentless activity.

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

Rather than postponing peace until every task is complete, Elder Kearon encouraged listeners to accept the unfinished nature of their present lives. “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.”

He also described spiritual growth as a gradual process that does not always conform to personal schedules or expectations. “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?”

Drawing on Doctrine and Covenants 123:17, Elder Kearon said disciples should do what lies within their power and then become willing to stand still. “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.”

Receiving Rather Than Achieving Charity

Elder Kearon closed by connecting his message about achievement to the 2026 BYU Education Week theme from Moroni 7:47, which identifies charity as the pure love of Christ. He emphasized that charity differs from the goals and accomplishments people pursue through increased effort because it ultimately comes as a gift from God.

“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,” he said. “Only charity endures forever, and it ascends with us.”

People can prepare themselves prayerfully to receive that gift, Elder Kearon taught, but they cannot manufacture it through greater discipline or productivity. “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.”

Elder Kearon also read William Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” which describes the lasting joy the poet receives from remembering a field of daffodils. He used the poem as another invitation to notice beauty, hold onto moments of wonder and allow quiet reflection to remain part of a faithful life.

“[God] loves you so,” Elder Kearon said as he concluded the devotional. “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.”

Do you ever struggle to separate your worth from what you accomplish? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Holly Wallace

Holly Wallace is a writer and storyteller drawn to meaningful questions and overlooked details. Her work explores Latter-day Saint life and culture through faithful inquiry, inviting readers to pause, consider, and engage more deeply with what matters most.