This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 2010 Conference.
I loved the talk on Agency by the underappreciated (just by me, when I was younger! I love him now) Elder Hales. I thought this insight was so good:
Think of it: in our premortal state we chose to follow the Savior Jesus Christ! And because we did, we were allowed to come to earth. I testify that by making the same choice to follow the Savior now, while we are here on earth, we will obtain an even greater blessing in the eternities. But let it be known: we must continue to choose to follow the Savior.
I think it's interesting that in some ways it seems this has to be an eternal and recurring choice. We have to choose Jesus every day and demonstrate our faith and trust with each act and each thought. But in another ways, I think we can choose it and never look back. I love the fact that as we continue to choose to follow Him, He helps change our natures so that we don't have as difficult of a time choosing. We can point ourselves toward Him and then just keep walking. I feel like I'm doing that now. It's not that the path doesn't still get hard and I don't still stumble. I still keep coming around bends in the road and thinking, "This? I never wanted this!" But I never contemplate turning around or getting off the path anymore. I already know that I'm going where I want to go, and I'm going to keep going there if it kills me (which it definitely will, seeing as death is the end of this mortal journey for everyone, ha ha).
Elder Hales makes that same point here:
…By His perfect life, [our Savior] taught us that when we choose to do the will of our Heavenly Father, our agency is preserved, our opportunities increase, and we progress.
Choosing good means we get to keep choosing good. Choosing obedience means we gain freedom. Choosing faith means we never get stuck, despairing and confused, in sin. We know what to do with trial and sin. We're still learning to actually DO what we know, of course, and faltering along the way, but we aren't damned by our mistakes. We progress through them. That's what continually choosing Christ (as well as once-and-for-all choosing Christ) can do for us.
I also thought this was beautiful:
When we follow the prophets’ counsel to hold family home evening, family prayer, and family scripture study, our homes become an incubator for our children’s spiritual growth. There we teach them the gospel, bear our testimonies, express our love, and listen as they share their feelings and experiences. By our righteous choices and actions, we liberate them from darkness by increasing their ability to walk in the light.
This made me think that wherever our children end up choosing to walk (because it is their choice)—in darkness or light or some of each—and no matter how long they wander as they figure themselves out—that by teaching them the gospel in our homes, we have given them the gift of it being easier to find the light, easier to recognize it (and its lack), and easier to walk in it when they choose to do so. We haven't taken the burden of choice from them. But we've lightened it meaningfully by showing them that there is a choice, and that choosing God leads to light and progress in every way.
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