It’s not about just doing what is right; it’s about choosing to do what is right.
PHOTO BY KARSTEN WÜRTH
God has always given us commandments; he has defined right from wrong and told us which one to follow. From the very beginning, God has also given us agency, or the ability to choose for ourselves. This gift of agency is one of the most important powers God has given us. Because of this, there is power in choosing what’s right.
In his 2018 general conference address “Choose You This Day,” Elder Dale G. Renlund discusses the importance of agency and why it is needed in the first place. Elder Renlund teaches that “our choices determine who we are and who we will become.” Our Heavenly Father has placed us here on earth to become like him. In fact, “our Heavenly Father’s goal…is not to have his children do what is right; it is to have His children choose to do what is right and ultimately become like him.” He won’t force us to follow him. He wants us to choose it on our own.
But God understands that we won’t choose perfectly; in fact, he planned for it. He gave us a Savior to atone for our sins and be an advocate for us: “Christ’s advocacy is, at least in part, to remind us that he has paid for our sins and that no one is excluded from the reach of God’s mercy.” Everyone can make it back to God no matter their past choices if they turn to Christ and choose him now.
Our agency is powerful. What we become is up to us. Choose to follow Jesus Christ, for “his ways bring joy and hope—eventually and always.”
Read and watch Elder Dale G. Renlund’s talk “Choose You This Day” to learn more about God’s plan and his desire to let us choose.
Source: General Conference
—Abigail Ellis, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY KYLE GLENN
Find more insights
To learn more about the power of little everyday choices, read President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s general conference talk “A Matter of a Few Degrees.”
Read Megan Crook’s Latter-day Saint Insights article “Doctrine in Doubles” to learn more about the relationship between agency and responsibility.