Agency

1.  “Throughout His life our Savior showed us how to use our agency. As a boy in Jerusalem, He deliberately chose to “be about [His] Father’s business.” ¹⁰ In His ministry, He obediently chose “to do the will of [His] Father.” ¹¹ In Gethsemane, He chose to suffer all things, saying, “Not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” ¹² On the cross, He chose to love His enemies, praying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” ¹³ And then, so that He could finally demonstrate that He was choosing for Himself, He was left alone. “[Father,] why hast thou forsaken me?” He asked. ¹⁴ At last, He exercised His agency to act, enduring to the end, until He could say, “It is finished.” ¹⁵

“Though He “was in all points tempted like as we are,” ¹⁶ with every choice and every action He exercised the agency to be our Savior—to break the chains of sin and death for us. And by His perfect life, He taught us that when we choose to do the will of our Heavenly Father, our agency is preserved, our opportunities increase, and we progress.”

Robert D Hales, “Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life”, Liahona Magazine, November 2010

 2.  “In the grand division of all of God’s creations, there are things to act and things to be acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2:13–14). As sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, we have been blessed with the gift of moral agency, the capacity for independent action and choice. Endowed with agency, you and I are agents, and we primarily are to act and not just be acted upon. To believe that someone or something can make us feel offended, angry, hurt, or bitter diminishes our moral agency and transforms us into objects to be acted upon. As agents, however, you and I have the power to act and to choose how we will respond to an offensive or hurtful situation.”

David A Bednar, “And Nothing Shall Offend Them”, General Conference October 2006

 3.  “Our Heavenly Father did not launch us on our eternal journey without providing the means whereby we could receive from Him God-given guidance to assist in our safe return at the end of mortal life. I speak of prayer. I speak too of the whisperings from that still, small voice within each of us, and I do not overlook the holy scriptures, written by mariners who successfully sailed the seas we too must cross.”

“Each of us has come to this earth with all the tools necessary to make correct choices. The prophet Mormon tells us, “The Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil.”³

Thomas S Monson, “The Three R’s of Choice”, General Conference October 2010

 4.  “All are born with the Light of Christ, a guiding influence which permits each person to recognize right from wrong. What we do with that light and how we respond to those promptings to live righteously is part of the test of mortality.”

Boyd K Packard, “These Things I know”, General Conference April 2013

5.  “Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because it is right, even when it is hard.”

D. Todd Christofferson, “Moral Discipline,” Liahona, November 2009

 6.  “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.” Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “On the Wings of Eagles,” Liahona, July 2006

7.  “As we look into the future, we are going to need to be stronger and more responsible for our choices in a world where people 'call evil good, and good evil.' We do not choose wisely if we use our agency in opposition to God’s will or to priesthood counsel. Tomorrow’s blessings and opportunities depend on the choices we make today.”

 James E. Faust, “Choices,” Liahona, May 2004

8.  “To fully understand this gift of agency and its inestimable worth, it is imperative that we understand that God’s chief way of acting is by persuasion and patience and long-suffering, not by coercion and stark confrontation. He acts by gentle solicitation and by sweet enticement. He always acts with unfailing respect for the freedom and independence that we possess. He wants to help us and pleads for the chance to assist us, but he will not do so in violation of our agency. He loves us too much to do that, and doing so would run counter to his divine character.”

Howard W. Hunter, “The Golden Thread of Choice,” General Conference, October 1989

 9.  "Tolerance obviously requires a noncontentious manner of relating toward one another's differences. But tolerance does not require abandoning one's standards or one's opinions on political or public policy choices. Tolerance is a way of reacting to diversity, not a command to insulate it from examination."

Dallin H. Oaks, “Weightier Matters", Ensign, January 2001

 10.  "So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment."

Thomas S. Monson, "Living the Abundant Life", Ensign, January 2012