"The biggest business of any life is making decisions. While one of the greatest gifts of God to man is … the right of choice, he has also given man responsibility for these choices. … We put our own lives in the direction of success or failure."
Ezra Taft Benson does a superb job of explaining where agency comes from and what it means to us now during our turn at mortality:
"The central issue in that premortal council was: Shall the children of God have untrammeled agency to choose the course they should follow, whether good or evil, or shall they be coerced and forced to be obedient? Christ and all who followed Him stood for the former proposition—freedom of choice; Satan stood for the latter—coercion and force."
Ezra Taft Benson frequently taught about agency:
"His teachings about the principle of agency included more than just a reminder to “choose between right and wrong.” He spoke of agency as the ability to “make important decisions that will have bearing on our salvation” and that will “affect our happiness in eternity.” He encouraged Latter-day Saints and others to use their agency to “act on their own,” without waiting to be commanded in all things. The principle of agency, he said, “runs like a golden thread throughout the gospel plan of the Lord for the blessing of his children."
"This life is a probation: a probation in which you and I prove our mettle, a probation that has eternal consequences for each of us. And now is our time and season—as every generation has had theirs—to learn our duties and to do them."
Mettle means strength of spirit!
In regards to the presence of evil and/or tragedy and its sorrowful consequences, President Benson teaches:
"That the Lord is displeased with wickedness is true. That He desires that it not occur is also true. That He will help those who oppose it is true. But that He allows wickedness to occur at all through His children here in mortality is proof of His having given them their freedom to choose, while reserving for Him a basis for their final judgment."
"There is no evil that [Jesus Christ] cannot arrest. All things are in His hands. This earth is His rightful dominion. Yet He permits evil so that we [and others] can make choices between good and evil."
"There are boundaries beyond which Satan cannot go. Within those bounds, he is presently being permitted to offer an unrighteous alternative to God’s righteous principles, thus allowing men to choose between good and evil and thereby determine the station they shall occupy in the next life."
President Benson reminds us just what Satan is really all about and what the consequences of sin actually do to us and those we care about:
"Your Father in heaven is mindful of you. He has given you commandments to guide you, to discipline you. He has also given you your agency—freedom of choice—“to see if [you] will do all things whatsoever [He] shall command.” (Abr. 3:25.)
"Satan is also mindful of you. He is committed to your destruction. He does not discipline you with commandments, but offers instead a freedom to “do your own thing.” … Satan’s program is “play now and pay later.” He seeks for all to be miserable like unto himself [see 2 Nephi 2:27]. The Lord’s program is happiness now and joy forever through gospel living."
"While a man may take some temporary pleasure in sin, the end result is unhappiness. “Wickedness never was happiness.” (Alma 41:10.) Sin creates disharmony with God and is depressing to the spirit."
Read the whole lesson, it was great!
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