Agency

We choose the right because it is right and will bring us joy and happiness. We must study truth so that we are prepared to make those choices that will allow us to return to our Father in Heaven filled with joy and happiness. I was taught as a child that we need to decide ahead of time that we will not take drugs, drink alcohol, or break the law of chastity. I have realized in my study about agency that I must still prepare and decide ahead of time for the choices that I make every day. I can decide to read my scriptures, pray, repent, and follow Christ each and every day so that I can come closer to living with my Heavenly Father.

1.Agency used righteously allows light to dispel the darkness and enables us to live with joy and happiness. Robert D. Hales “To Act For Ourselves: The Gift and Blessings of Agency” April 2006

2.We have been given agency, we have been given the blessings of the priesthood, and we have been given the Light of Christ and the Holy Ghostfor a reason. That reason is our growth and happiness in this world and eternal life in the world to come.  Robert D. Hales “To Act For Ourselves: The Gift and Blessings of Agency” April 2006

3.Latter-day Saints are not obedient because they are compelled to be obedient. They are obedient because they know certain spiritual truths and have decided, as an expression of their own individual agency, to obey the commandments of God. Boyd K. Packer “Agency and Control” April 1983

4.Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because it is right, even when it is hard. D. Todd Christofferson “Moral Discipline” October 2009

5.I have heard a few parents state that they don’t want to impose the gospel on their children but want them to make up their own minds about what they will believe and follow. They think that in this way they are allowing children to exercise their agency. What they forget is that the intelligent use of agency requires knowledge of the truth, of things as they really are (see D&C 93:24). Without that, young people can hardly be expected to understand and evaluate the alternatives that come before them. D. Todd Christofferson “Moral Discipline” October 2009

6.I have been thinking recently about choices and their consequences. Scarcely an hour of the day goes by but what we are called upon to make choices of one sort or another. Some are trivial, some more far-reaching. Some will make no difference in the eternal scheme of things, and others will make all the difference. Thomas S. Monson “The Three R's of Choice” October 2010

7.Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct that life is God’s greatest gift to man. David O'McKay in General Conference April 1950

8.Because of that divine decision which determined your eternal progression, you received a physical body, gained the agency to choose good over evil, and are now growing and preparing to take upon yourselves the attributes of our Savior. Robert D. Hales “To The Aaronic Priesthood: Preparing for the Decade of Decision” April 2007

9.In the decade ahead, your time for preparation will be limited. As you are Aaronic Priesthood bearers, it is important that you prepare now. You must develop your own preconditioned responses for the important decisions you will make in the next decade of your life. You must know what to do and when to do it when each decision presents itself. Remember that making no decision at all could be just as deadly as making the wrong decision. Many of the decisions you make or don’t make will have eternal consequences. Robert D. Hales “To The Aaronic Priesthood: Preparing for the Decade of Decision” April 2007

10.As we learn in the scriptures, the fundamental purposes for the gift of agency were to love one another and to choose God. Thus we became God's chosen and invite His tender mercies as we use our agency to choose God. David A. Bednar