Agency Position Statement

One of the greatest gifts we are given is our gift of agency.  It is a gift we had in the premortal life.  It is so valuable that a war was waged over our right to have it.  We know because we are here on earth in a mortal body that we used our agency there well. Now we are being tested to see how we will use it in mortality.  Because of our agency we are free to choose.  But we are not free to choose our consequences.  When we make good choices we are blessed.  When our choices are poor we have to suffer the negative consequences. Sometimes the consequences take a while to catch up to us, but they do inevitably catch up.   Ultimately, through our agency we choose happiness or misery.  The choice is ours.

Agency to Choose Happiness

Agency used righteously allows light to dispel the darkness and enables us to live with joy and happiness in the present, look with faith to the future, even into the eternities, and not dwell on the things of the past. Our use of agency determines who we are and what we will be.

Elder Robert D. Hales - April 2006 General Conference "To Act for Ourselves; the Gift and Blessings of Agency"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/04/to-act-for-ourselves-the-gift-and-blessings-of-agency?lang=eng

Getting Out of a Black Hole

As with the real black holes in space, it may seem all but impossible for light to penetrate to where you are. How do you escape? I testify the only way is through the very agency you exercised so valiantly in your premortal life, the agency that the adversary cannot take away without your yielding it to him.

Elder Robert D. Hales - April 2006 General Conference "To Act for Ourselves; the Gift and Blessings of Agency"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/04/to-act-for-ourselves-the-gift-and-blessings-of-agency?lang=eng

Effort on Our Part

We do not need to achieve some minimum level of capacity or goodness before God will help - divine aid can be ours every hour of every day, no matter where we are in the path of obedience.  But I know that beyond desiring His help, we must exert ourselves, repent, and choose God for Him to be able to act in our lives consistent with justice and moral agency.  My plea is simply to take responsibility and go to work so that there is something for God to help us with.

      Elder D. Todd Christofferson - October 2014 General Conference "Free Forever to Act for themselves"

      https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/free-forever-to-act-for-themselves?lang=eng

Path to What We May Become

The gospel of Jesus Christ opens the path to what we may become. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His grace, our failures to live the celestial law perfectly and consistently in mortality can be erased and we are enabled to develop a Christlike character. Justice demands, however, that none of this happen without our willing agreement and participation. It has ever been so. Our very presence on earth as physical beings is the consequence of a choice each of us made to participate in our Father's plan.  Thus, salvation is certainly not the result of divine whim, but neither does it happen by divine will alone.  

      Elder D. Todd Christofferson - October 2014 General Conference "Free Forever to Act for themselves"

      https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/free-forever-to-act-for-themselves?lang=eng

Neither Compels Nor Abandons

God will not act to make us something we do not choose by our actions to become.  Truly He loves us, and because He loves us, He neither compels nor abandons us.  Rather He helps and guides us. 

 Elder D. Todd Christofferson - October 2014 General Conference "Free Forever to Act for themselves"

      https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/free-forever-to-act-for-themselves?lang=eng

Weaken the Powers of Satan

When we are consistently praying morning and night, studying our scriptures daily, having weekly family home evening, and attending the temple regularly, we are actively responding to His invitation to “come unto Him.” The more we develop these habits, the more anxious is Satan to harm us but the less is his ability to do so. Through the use of these tools, we exercise our agency to accept the full gifts of His atoning sacrifice.

Elder Richard G. Scott - October 2014 General Conference "Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/make-the-exercise-of-faith-your-first-priority?lang=eng

Include the Lord

As you exercise that agency and include Him in every aspect of your daily life, your heart will begin to fill with peace, buoyant peace. That peace will focus an eternal light on your struggles. It will help you to manage those challenges from an eternal perspective.

Elder Richard G. Scott - October 2014 General Conference "Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/make-the-exercise-of-faith-your-first-priority?lang=eng

Choose Faith

Despite all of the negative challenges we have in life, we must take time to actively exercise our faith.  Such exercise invites the positive, faith-filled power of the Atonement of Jesus.

Elder Richard G. Scott - October 2014 General Conference "Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/make-the-exercise-of-faith-your-first-priority?lang=eng

We Can Only Know Peace Because We Have Felt Turmoil

We are blessed with agency, which is our ability to make decisions and to become accountable for those decisions.  The Fall made possible in our lives feelings of both happiness and sadness.  We are able to understand peace because we feel turmoil.

Elder Richard G. Scott - October 2014 General Conference "Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/make-the-exercise-of-faith-your-first-priority?lang=eng

Choices and Consequences

 We may not live perfect lives, and there are penalties for our mistakes, but before we came to earth, we agreed to be subject to His laws and to accept the punishment for violating those laws.

President Boyd K. Packer - October 2014 General Conference "The Reason for Our Hope"

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/the-reason-for-our-hope?lang=eng

Prevent Regrets Through By Following Chrst

Many of the deepest regrets of tomorrow can be prevented by following the Savior today. If we have sinned or made mistakes—if we have made choices that we now regret—there is the precious gift of Christ’s Atonement, through which we can be forgiven. We cannot go back in time and change the past, but we can repent. The Savior can wipe away our tears of regret and remove the burden of our sins.  His Atonement allows us to leave the past behind and move forward with clean hands, a pure heart, and a determination to do better and especially to become better. 

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - October 2012 General Conference "Of Regrets and Resolutions"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng

The Precious Gift of Time

I think of our Lord and Exemplar, Jesus Christ, and His short life among the people of Galilee and Jerusalem. I have tried to imagine Him bustling between meetings or multitasking to get a list of urgent things accomplished. I can’t see it.  Instead I see the compassionate and caring Son of God purposefully living each day. When He interacted with those around Him, they felt important and loved. He knew the infinite value of the people He met. He blessed them, ministered to them. He lifted them up, healed them. He gave them the precious gift of His time.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - October 2012 General Conference "Of Regrets and Resolutions"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng

Happiness Through Living the Gospel Principles

The foundational principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ‍ can affect our life’s direction for good, if only we will apply them.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - October 2012 General Conference "Of Regrets and Resolutions"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng

Living the Gospel is a Joyful Preparation

Dear brothers and sisters, living the gospel faithfully is not a burden. It is a joyful rehearsal—a preparation for inheriting the grand glory of the eternities. We seek to obey our Heavenly Father because our spirits will become more attuned to spiritual things. Vistas are opened that we never knew existed. Enlightenment and understanding come to us when we do the will of the Father.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - April 2015 General Conference "The Gift of Grace"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/the-gift-of-grace?lang=eng

Becoming Who We Want to Be

Here in the Church of Jesus Christ you can mature spiritually and draw closer to the Savior by applying‍ gospel principles day by day... With patience and persistence, even the smallest act of discipleship or the tiniest ember of belief can become a blazing bonfire of a consecrated life... So if you feel small and weak, please simply come unto Christ, who makes weak things strong. . .

My beloved brothers in Christ, the God of Creation, who breathed life into the universe, surely has the power to breathe life into you. Surely He can make of you the genuine, spiritual being of light and truth you desire to be.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - April 2015 General Conference "On Being Genuine"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/on-being-genuine?lang=eng

Why Do We Do It?

I am here because I desire with all my heart to follow my Master, Jesus Christ. I yearn to do all that He asks of me in this great cause. I hunger to be edified by the Holy Spirit and hear the voice of God as He speaks through His ordained servants. I am here to become a better man, to be lifted by the inspiring examples of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and to learn how to more effectively minister to those in need.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - April 2015 General Conference "On Being Genuine"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/on-being-genuine?lang=eng

Stewardship of Our Time

If Jesus Christ‍ were to sit down with us and ask for an accounting of our stewardship, I am not sure He would focus much on programs and statistics. What the Savior would want to know is the condition of our heart. He would want to know how we love and minister to those in our care, how we show our love to our spouse and family, and how we lighten their daily load. And the Savior would want to know how you and I grow closer to Him and to our Heavenly Father.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - April 2015 General Conference "On Being Genuine"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/on-being-genuine?lang=eng

Hope in Change

The sixth and final point I wish to make about the process of repentance is that we must be careful, as we seek to become more and more godlike, that we do not become discouraged and lose hope. Becoming Christlike is a lifetime pursuit and very often involves growth and change that is slow, almost imperceptible. . . We must not lose hope. Hope is an anchor to the souls of men. Satan would have us cast away that anchor. In this way he can bring discouragement and surrender. But we must not lose hope. The Lord is pleased with every effort, even the tiny, daily ones in which we strive to be more like Him. Though we may see that we have far to go on the road to perfection, we must not give up hope.

President Ezra Taft Benson - October 1989 Ensign "A Mighty Change of Heart"
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1989/10/a-mighty-change-of-heart?lang=eng

Using Agency to Control Tempers and Pride

When we with faith control our tempers and subdue our pride, the Holy Ghost gives His approval, and sacred promises and covenants become sure.

President Henry B. Eyring - April 2012 General Conference "Families Under Covenant"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/families-under-covenant?lang=eng