Agency

LDS Quotes on Agency

Exercising agency in a setting that sometimes includes opposition and hardship is what makes life more than a simple multiple-choice test. God is interested in what we are becoming as a result of our choices. He is not satisfied if our exercise of moral agency is simply a robotic effort at keeping some rules. Our Savior wants us to become something, not just do some things. He is endeavoring to make us independently strong – more able to act for ourselves than perhaps those of any prior generation. We must be righteous, even when He withdraws His Spirit, or, as President Brigham Young said, even “in the dark.”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson  |  “Moral Agency” Ensign, June 2009, p. 53

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Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf

“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.”

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf  |  On the Wings of Eagles, BYU Devotional, July 2006

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“Adam and Eve’s fall wasn’t down, rather, as I have heard it expressed, they fell forward.”

Brad Wilcox

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“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

George Patton

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“The volition of [man] is free; this is a law of their existence, and the Lord cannot violate his own law; were he to do that, he would cease to be God. … This is a law which has always existed from all eternity, and will continue to exist throughout all the eternities to come. Every intelligent being must have the power of choice.”

Brigham Young  |  In Journal of Discourses, 11:272.

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“[Smartphones] need to be our servants, not our masters. For example, if later tonight you share inspiring thoughts from this devotional on social media, your smartphone is a servant. If you randomly surf the Internet, your smartphone is a master.”

Elder M. Russell Ballard

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Thomas S. Monson

“It has been said by one, years ago, that history turns on small hinges, and so do people’s lives. Our lives will depend upon the decisions which we make—for decisions determine destiny.”

Thomas S. Monson  |  "Decisions Determine Destiny"

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“We want a script, and we find we stand before a blank canvas. We expect a road map, and we find we have only a compass. We have yet to learn, as the poet John Ciardi wrote, that ‘clean white paper, waiting under a pen, is a gift beyond human history and hurt and heaven.”

Terryl and Fiona Givens

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“God rarely infringes on the agency of any of His children by intervening against some for the relief of others. But He does ease the burdens of our afflictions and strengthen us to bear them…Through all mortal opposition, we have God’s assurance that He will ‘consecrate [our] afflictions for [our] gain’ (2 Nephi 2:2).”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks  |  Opposition in All Things

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“As Joseph reminded his followers, ‘I believe that God foreknew everything, but did not foreordain everything.’ Exaltation, is within the reach of all, even if the journey toward that divine end is fraught with suffering. If we had insurance against a painful journey, one-third of the heavenly hosts would not have abandoned the enterprise. The risks are real. Or, in the language of the Book of Mormon, we cannot assume that our afflictions come from God, but we can know that ‘God shall consecrate [our] afflictions for [our] gain.'”

Terryl and Fiona Givens  |  "The Christ Who Heals"

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