Agency: Putting Choices in Context

Agency is not the power to make choices in a vacuum—it is the power to make choices in relationship to our surroundings.

We as children of heavenly parents have agency, or the ability to choose. The hymn “Choose the Right” expresses succinctly what we are to do with this ability: we are to choose the right. In discussions of agency, we most often focus on what we should choose rather than why we choose the things we choose. Understanding the context surrounding both our actions and the actions of others helps us have compassion for those whose choices we do not agree with.

In “Agency: A Power Grounded in Relationality,” an article adapted from Terryl Givens’s book Agency, the Maxwell Institute explains that “we do not choose in an impersonal vacuum. We choose in response to words, enticements, counsels, actions of others.” When we make choices, our insight into our own minds and circumstances gives us a solid understanding of why we made a particular decision. However, we do not have the same insight into the lives of others, so it is hard to understand why they would make some of the choices that they do.

We can easily misjudge others’ choices when they differ from our own, and especially when the choices aren’t what we would consider “right” or aren’t something we can easily explain. However, without an understanding of someone’s thoughts and full situation, we are making our judgments without context—in a vacuum.

So how can we better respect the choices of others? A good first step is understanding that we do not have the whole context. When we find ourselves subconsciously judging someone for making choices we don’t believe are right, we can remind ourselves that we are only seeing a little bit of the picture. 

As we keep in mind how little context we have for other people’s lives, we can better show our love for people we do not understand. We can also be more responsible for our own choices by evaluating our context, because our choices do not take place in a vacuum.

Read more about Terryl Givens’s book Agency in the Neal A. Maxwell Institute’s article “Agency: A Power Grounded in Relationality.”

Source: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

—Eldin Ratliff, Latter-day Saint Insights

FEATURE IMAGE BY VLADISLAV BABIENKO

Find more insights 

To learn more about refraining from judging others, read or listen to Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer’s general conference address “Developing Good Judgement and Not Judging Others.”

For more insight into the importance of agency and opposition, read 2 Nephi 2:11–16.