Agency

Talks

Quotes

God gave us free agency, and then gave us the commandments to keep us free.

Make your life colorful, but remember to stay in the lines.

‘The Holy Ghost won’t prevent you from doing wrong things, he will just prevent you from enjoying it.”

The Lord votes for me, the devil votes against me.  I get to cast the deciding vote.

With regards to free agency “If you misuse it, you lose it.”     

When we submit to Christ, we find the ultimate freedom.  We are “encircled about in the arms of His love.”  When we submit to Satan, we find the ultimate bondage.  We are “encircled with his chains.” With Christ, we have short-term submission, followed by long-term freedom.  With Satan, we have short-term freedom, followed by long-term submission.

There is no freedom without responsibility.

Free agency isn’t free – it was bought with a price.

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain

Unfortunately, however, when some choose slackness, they are choosing not only for themselves, but for the next generation and the next.  Small equivocations in parents can produce large deviations in their children.  Neal A. Maxwell

President Monson has said, “All of our choices have consequences, some of which have little or nothing to do with our eternal salvation and other of which have everything to do with it.” (October 2010 “The Three R’s of Choice”)

“Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man.  And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil.” (2 N 2:27-29)

President Monson said, “As long as we live upon this earth, Lucifer and his hosts will never abandon the hope of claiming our souls.”  However,  Joseph Smith taught that, “all beings who have bodies have power over those who have not.” (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 211)   President Monson added “No temptation, no pressure, no enticing can overcome us unless we allow such.” (“3 R’s of Choice” October, 2010)  And the Apostle Paul has assured us, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

The nice thing about free agency is that you are completely free to choose.  The downside to free agency is that you are not free to choose your consequences.

Marion G. Romney has said “When one makes a choice, he irrevocably binds himself to the consequences of that choice.”

John L. Hart said, “Truly, a man will reap as he has sown.  The law of consequences suggests that often, when we make a correct decision, we pay our price first and reap the reward later.  When we make an incorrect decision, we often reap our reward first, but pay our price later.” 

We shouldn’t wait to be commanded in all things. ‘The Lord gave us a brain and he gave us commandments and he expects us to use both of them.”  – Jean Benson J. Golden Kimball said, “I didn’t always stay on the straight and narrow path all my life, but I tried to cross it as often as I could.”