Choose ye this day...

Dear Posterity,

This week in Young Men's the lesson was on agency. The instructor gave a wonderful lesson about the importance of agency and the impact that agency has on our lives. Agency is a key principle of the gospel and one of the most valued blessings that our Heavenly Father has given us. The lesson reminded me of lessons that I learned as a youth.

Agency is one of those principles that is often misunderstood. We often hear it referred to as free agency but I believe agency comes with a cost. If you think back about what we know about pre-mortal life we know that 1/3 of the hosts of Heaven was cast off because they didn't want to follow our Heavenly Father's plan. The opportunity to have agency cost a third of the hosts of heaven, which to me is a great cost. I think that when people say free agency they are referring to our freedom to choose.

We do have the freedom to choose. Any choice that is placed before us is left for us to decide what to do. We can choose good or bad, right or wrong. We can choose wickedness or happiness, life or death. We have the light of Christ within us to help us choose correctly but ultimately the choice is ours. We are free to make the choice but not free to choose the outcome. Whatever we choose we must live with whatever consequence, good or bad, that comes with that choice.

I remember a time from my childhood that I refused to do the dishes. I hated doing the dishes because we were so poor that we did not have a dishwasher. I would spend hours doing them by hand and this particular day I refused to do them. I spent the entire day not doing my chore because I didn't want to. It was my choice and I choose NOT to do what I was asked to do. Later that evening my friend called and said that he was having a early birthday party. He was turning 16 and he was my best friend. I couldn't wait to go. I went and asked my mom and she simply said that I could not go because I had not done the dishes. It never dawned on me that I would be left out of something so fun because I didn't do the dishes. I missed the chance to celebrate his birthday and I could only blame myself.

The same is true in life. Our Heavenly Father asks us to do certain things and we have the freedom to choose whether or not we want to do them. With this power comes great responsibility. We may choose in this mortal life what we want to do but our choices will affect us in the next life. Will we miss out on a great time because we choose to ignore something that we were asked to do?

Samuel the Lamanite taught "And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are ^bfree; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a ^cknowledge and he hath made you free. He hath given unto you that ye might ^aknow good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might ^bchoose life or death; and ye can do good and be ^crestored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you." Heleman 14:30-31

I pray that your choices in life will be that unto everlasting life and light and that you will be rewarded with such. Don't miss out on eternal happiness for a moment of weakness. I challenge you to do as Joshua challenged us to do..."Choose ye this day who you will serve...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord..."