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This devotional address entitled Call Upon God was given on August 20th of 1974 by Jeffrey R. Holland, then Dean of Religious Instruction at Brigham Young University.

I welcome you to Education Week. Particularly welcome you to this devotional and I'm thrilled for the opportunity to spend a few moments with you.

I'm recovering from a cold.

If my voice sounds funny, don't fiddle with your hearing aid.

It's just my voice.

And you're recovering from a trip here and the excitement of a week ahead of you.

We sit here in this cavernous pit, all of which seems kind of foreboding to me,

and which prompts me to say that given all of that, I have no higher hopes than that it will be said of me as it was said of the cross-eyed javelin-thrower.

He set no records, but at least he kept the crowd alert. If you can stay with me alertly for a moment or two, that will be my thrill,

and I hope perhaps yours. You're here for a great week of learning and education

and exchange and discussion. I remember as a young boy coming to Education Week to Brigham Young University campus.

And I thrill for you in the chance to be here at this marvelous institution.

Even if this were the first day on a campus for you, which it isn't, but if it were,

you would already know how important it is and how important it will be to you, to

listen carefully, to take notes, to be attentive, to hear what the teacher has to say,

to participate in the give and take of the communication of this week. A great deal of this

exchange will be verbal. That is either written or spoken.

And I think even in classes where you might be dealing with the visual arts or music or other nonverbal means of communication,

still you will have discussions about that.

And you'll use words and perhaps even try to describe what you saw or heard or felt with those words.

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