Agency

Whenever we choose to come unto Christ, take His name upon us, and follow His servants, we progress along the path to eternal life. In our mortal journey, it is helpful to remember that the opposite is also true: when we don’t keep the commandments or follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, our opportunities are reduced; our abilities to act and progress are diminished.

~Robert D. Hales, Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life, October 2010

“Warn them that they will encounter people who pick which commandments they will keep and ignore others that they choose to break. I call this the cafeteria approach to obedience. This practice of picking and choosing will not work. It will lead to misery."

~ Russell M. Neilson, Face the Future With Faith, Conference April 2011

You have agency, and you are free to choose. But there is actually no free agency. Agency has its price. You have to pay the consequences of your choices.

~ Dieter F. Utchdorf, On the Wings of Eagles, BYU Devotional, July 2006

Because the eternal principle of agency gives us the freedom to choose and think for ourselves, we should become increasingly able to solve problems. We may make the occasional mistake, but as long as we are following gospel principles and guidelines, we can learn from those mistakes and become more understanding of others and more effective in serving them.

~ M. Russell Ballard, O Be Wise, Conference, October 2006

Do we have a guide to help us choose the right and avoid dangerous detours? I have tried to pattern my life after the Master. Whenever I have a difficult decision to make, I have looked at that picture and asked myself, “What would He do?” Then I try to do it. We can never go wrong when we choose to follow the Savior.

~ Thomas S. Monson, Choose You This Day, Conference October 2004

Our agency, given us through the plan of our Father, is the great alternative to Satan’s plan of force. With this sublime gift, we can grow, improve, progress, and seek perfection. Without agency, none of us could grow and develop by learning from our mistakes and errors and those of others…. I do not really think the devil can make us do anything. Certainly he can tempt and he can deceive, but he has no authority over us that we do not give him.

~James E. Faust, The Forces That Will Save Us, First Presidency Message, January 2007

You and I were among those who used their agency to accept Heavenly Father’s plan to come to earth, to have a mortal life, to progress. “We shouted for joy … to have the opportunity of coming to the earth to receive bodies [for we knew] that we might become, through faithfulness, like unto our Father, God.”  Now we are here on earth, where opportunities to use our agency abound; for here “there is an opposition in all things.” This opposition is essential to the purpose of our lives.

~Robert D. Hales, To Act For Ourselves: The Gift and Blessings of Agency, April 2006

By “moral discipline,” I mean self-discipline based on moral standards. Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because it is right, even when it is hard. It rejects the self-absorbed life in favor of developing character worthy of respect and true greatness through Christlike service.

~ D. Todd Christofferson, Moral Discipline, Conference October 2009

The decisions we make, individually and personally, become the fabric of our lives. That fabric will be beautiful or ugly according to the threads of which it is woven. I wish to say particularly to the young men who are here that you cannot indulge in any unbecoming behavior without injury to the beauty of the fabric of your lives. Immoral acts of any kind will introduce an ugly thread. Dishonesty of any kind will create a blemish. Foul and profane language will rob the pattern of its beauty.”

~ Gordon B. Hinckley, This Work Is Concerned with People, Conference, April 1995

Men will be held accountable for the things which they have and not for the things they have not. … All the light and intelligence communicated to them from their beneficent creator, whether it is much or little, by the same they in justice will be judged, and … they are required to yield obedience and improve upon that and that only which is given, for man is not to live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

~ Joseph Smith, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 405

Choosing to do what the Lord has defined as right will, in the long run, always lead to the best outcomes.

~Richard G. Scott - Ensign, Nov. 1998, 69

My Own Thoughts and Testimony:

It is common for many to think of the commandments or the strictness of the word of God to be restricting and limiting to freedom and happiness. I promise you that this is not true! There was a time in my life that I thought the very same thing. I believed in the gospel, but I felt that it was so restricting. As I started picking and choosing which commandments I would follow, I found myself trapped due to the consequences of sin. Something I have learned, is that I never regret doing the right thing. The hardest part is just making the decision to change and not so much the act itself. When we fear God more than men and put our trust in Him, He gives us strength beyond our own to accomplish the things He has asked us to do. I testify that there is great freedom and happiness found in keeping the commandments. Greatest of all we find peace, something that can not be found from any other source.