I Couldn't Choose a Title ;)

Feb. 4, 2017

This week I got to think about making choices. Which is, quite frankly, one of my least favorite things to do.  It’s rough to choose things like what I’m gonna do on a daily basis, so making even bigger choices that impact far bigger things than my self-expression for a day are understandably more stressful. Earlier this week, making a game plan for future choices seemed to dominate my life (although I was sleep deprived and made it more stressful than it should have been – there’s my inner drama queen).  So of course I had quite the freak out.  However, as I’ve been told time and time again, the answers are in the scriptures.

My sweet dad came to my apartment at my request and helped me talk through things before he gave me a blessing; I’d had a stressful day (side note: the priesthood is great!). As we were talking, he walked me through the decision-making process, as outlined in Doctrine and Covenants 9:8 – “But behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.” Cool scripture, we’ve all heard it before. However, my dad pointed out to me that a step was missing – you can’t simply ask for an answer to a question that you have. You need to study out all of the options, THEN make a choice, and take that choice that you’ve made to our sweet Father in Heaven – essentially, the spirit is the final step that gives us a “yes” or “no” answer.

This is agency and the Plan of Salvation at it’s finest. Heavenly Father’s whole plan revolves around letting us make the choices for ourselves, which is one of the greatest acts of trust and love that I can somewhat fathom. We wouldn’t be exercising our agency fully if we didn’t believe that we had that power to choose. In a talk that I listened to this week, I was reminded that the whole Plan is to help us choose the better path so that we can be the happiest we can be in Heavenly Father’s presence. Diving into agency this week took a bit more of a gospel detour than I had originally intended, and I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it, but I understand the steps that Heavenly Father wants me to make – because all He does for me is so that I can be the happiest. To bring it all full circle, we even talked about the Fall in Book of Mormon class – “Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25). Adam fell and became a catalyst for the Plan, and we can make those choices and mistakes so that we can know what true happiness really is. As I put all of these scriptures into practice, I have clearer thoughts running through my head of pathways I should give a try. It really is marvelous.