The magnitude of our eternal happiness depends on choosing the living God and joining Him in His work.
I can’t help them if they won’t let me, and there’s no one so hard to teach as the child who knows everything.”
So they’ve got to do the next bit on their own.”
-Mary Poppins
Our Heavenly Father’s goal in parenting 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.
God established a plan whereby we can become heirs in His kingdom, a covenant path that leads us to become like Him, have the kind of life He has, and live forever as families in His presence.
Personal choice was–and is–vital to this plan, which we learned about in our premortal existence. We accepted the plan and chose to come to earth.
In Jesus Christ, “we have an advocate with the Father.”…Christ’s advocacy with the Father in our behalf is not adversarial. Jesus Christ, who allowed His will to be swallowed up in the will of the Father, would not champion anything other than what the Father has wanted all along. Heavenly Father undoubtedly cheers for and applauds our successes.
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.
Savior forgives, heals, and advocates. He is our helper, consoler, and intercessor–attesting to and vouching for our reconciliation with God.
In stark contrast, Lucifer is an accuser or prosecutor….the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony….He spoke against us in the premortal existence, and he continues to denounce us in this life. He seeks to drag us down. He wants us to experience endless woe. He is the one who tells us we are not adequate, the one who tells us we are not good enough, the one who tells us there is no recovery from a mistake. He is the ultimate bully, the one who kicks us when we are down.
This father of lies (Lucifer) is the ultimate purveyor of falsehood and cunningly works to deceive and distract us, “for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.”
Christ is the helper and consoler. His ways bring joy and hope–eventually and always.
Agency allows us to choose to get on the path, or not. It allows us to get off, or not. Just as we cannot be forced to obey, we cannot be forced to disobey. No one can, without our cooperation, take us off the path.
When we get off the path, God is saddened because He knows that this eventually, but invariably, leads to diminished happiness and forfeited blessings. In the scriptures, getting off the path is referred to as sin, and the resultant decrease in happiness and forfeited blessings is called punishment. In this sense, God is not punishing us; punishment is a consequence of our own choices, not His.
No matter how long we have been off the path or how far away we have wandered, the moment we decide to change, God helps us return. From God’s perspective, through sincere repentance and pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ, once back on the path, it will be as if we were never off.
We need to choose whom we will serve. The magnitude of our eternal happiness depends on choosing the living God and joining Him in His work.
Choose faith in Christ; choose repentance; choose to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost; choose to conscientiously prepare for and worthily partake of the sacrament; choose to make covenants in the temple; and choose to serve the living God and His children. Our choices determine who we are and who we will become.
Here is the full talk:
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/choose-you-this-day?lang=eng
-Sherri Jorgensen
Recent Comments