God Wants Us to Thrive

During my first semester of BYU-Pathway Worldwide, I was living across the United States in Idaho, far away from my family in Alabama. I had a job that was okay, but I could never seem to build up my savings. In one of my classes, we talked about the importance of saving money, which got me thinking, Maybe I should pause for a bit and focus on saving up instead.

So, I decided I would finish the semester then take a break until I found a better-paying job. I prayed about it a lot, asking Heavenly Father if I was making the right decision, but I still wasn’t sure what to do.

Desperately wanting an answer, I decided to read the Book of Mormon in the five months leading up to my birthday. I’d never made reading the Book of Mormon a daily thing before, but I started noticing a real change in my life. The Spirit was with me all day long, and I found myself getting more nudges to help and spread Christ’s love to others.

Not even a week into reading, my boss from an old high school job called me. I had no idea this call would end up being Heavenly Father’s answer to my prayers.

Turns out, my former boss’s company had just acquired another one, and he needed someone to handle the extra bookkeeping workload. He offered me a position with double the pay of my current job if I moved back to Alabama to work for him. And as if that wasn’t amazing enough, he mentioned he’d been thinking about my education and wanted to help with the expenses. It was a miracle! Because of his generosity and BYU-Pathway’s low tuition, I could be near my family, support myself, build my savings, and continue my education without worrying about my finances.

I’ve now completed both my administrative assistant certificate and my business and leadership skills certificate, and I’m working on finishing my human resources certificate* so I can graduate next year. When I first started my job, I worked in the accounting department before switching to human resources. Today, I’m the human resources director and manage the payroll and benefits for more than 500 employees. Since starting BYU-Pathway, my salary has tripled!

God has showered blessings on me and truly answered my prayers. He understood my desire for a better education and blessed me immensely with this new opportunity. Through it all, I gained a deep testimony that He listens to our prayers and truly cares about every part of our lives. God wants us to thrive.

The blessings I’ve received through BYU-Pathway have been countless. It taught me how amazing learning can be and that there’s always time to learn and improve yourself. I’m incredibly grateful to be able to keep moving forward in this wonderful program.

*The human resources certificate is no longer available. To see a list of current offerings, visit byupathway.edu/degrees/program-list .