Free to Choose....

Today's RS lesson was Chapter Three of the Ezra Taft Benson manual - Freedom of Choice, An Eternal Principle.

President Benson taught on the subject of agency often but was clear to remind us that it was not just a choice between right and wrong but was "an ability to make important decisions that will have bearing on our salvation and that will affect our happiness in eternity." 

What freedoms are you grateful to have in your life?  Maybe this video will remind you of the wonders the gift is of agency and the freedoms given to us from God.

This wonderful gift was so vital to us that a war was fought in Heaven to ensure it would be ours.  President Benson reminded us "The war that began in heaven over this issue is not yet over.  The conflict continues on the battlefield of mortality."  The Lord so wants us to choose righteously, but "He will NEVER force us to live the gospel. He will use persuasion through His servants, He will call us and He will direct us and He will persuade us and encourage us but He will never force the human mind."

Sisters - the choice whether to live the gospel and choose to follow the Lord is ours alone.  And here in mortality is the time we must make that choice, a time to "learn our duties and to do them."

But President Benson warned us to never forget, "Satan is also mindful of you.  He is committed to your destruction.  He does not discipline you with commandments, but offers instead a freedom to do your own thing! 

"Satan's program is play now and play later.  He seeks for all to be miserable like unto himself.

The Lord's program is happiness now and joy forever through gospel living."

 

If only we could remember that daily as we make our choices.

 

 

 

Whilst making the correct choices is vital, President Benson goes on to teach us that we have responsibility of those choices "We put our own lives in the direction of success of failure. We may not only choose our ultimate goals but we may also determine and decide for ourselves in many cases, the means by which we will arrive at those goals and by our industry or lack of it determine the speed by which they are reached.  This takes individual effort and will not be without opposition or conflict."

 

"Our decisions have made us what we are. 

Our eternal destiny will be determined by the decisions we yet will make."
 





The Lord needs sisters who can stand on their own feet and make correct decisions without being "compelled in all things" (D&C 58:26-29).    President Benson taught "Usually the Lord gives us the overall objectives to be accomplished and some guidelines to follow, but he expects us to work out most of the details and methods.  The methods and procedures are usually developed through study and prayer and by living so that we can obtain and follow the promptings of the spirit."

May we all take the time to review our lives.  Are we studying the scriptures and praying daily?  Sincerely?  And listening to the spirit as we make these decisions that will as President Monson says "determine our destiny"?

"We should be anxiously engaged in good causes and leave the world a better place for having lived in it."