Power to Choose * Power to Change

A war in heaven was fought, and souls were lost, that we might gain the precious gift of free agency.  The power to choose and act for ourselves.

As a teen-ager in the 70's there was a popular saying that I always remembered that said, "If you love something set it free.  If it loves you, it will come back to you."

That's how God feels about us.  He loved us so much He set us free with a power to choose, with a chance that we might not come back.

God gave us a mind to discern.  We can use the power He gave us to choose our thoughts.  As the Law of Attraction states, we have the power to intentionally think and create our entire life.

In 2 Nephi 2:27-29 it says, "...they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not be acted upon...to choose liberty and eternal life (through the Savior) or captivity and death (through Satan).

I'd like to think there are very few spirits that would knowingly choose evil.  I'd rather think they were pulled into evil through ignorance and through Satan's cunning deception.  It takes a lot more effort on our part to choose good and remain firm in righteousness, because Satan is going to be working harder on those that are on that path.  If we choose to do nothing at all, we fall over to Satan's side of the line.  Like Elder Jeffery R. Holland said, "there is no neutral ground in the universe:  every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan."

Doctrine & Covenants 58:27-29 says, "Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; for the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves..."
President Henry B. Eyring said, "Choose by what you put in your mind to be an example of hope to those around you."

Elder David A. Bednar said, "As agents, you and I have the power to act and to choose how we will respond [in any situation].  (Ensign 11/06 And Nothing Shall Offend Them)

Do we ever use others as an excuse for our own bad behavior?  True growth comes when we are ready to recognize and acknowledge our own faults and weaknesses, when we put our selves and our agency on God's altar, ready to accept His will, ready to see what changes He would have us to see.

I read a really good article, in fact, I studied it the last couple of days by Larry Barkdull (published on Meridian Magazine) called "How the Sacrament Empowers Us to Rescue Wayward Children."  He said, in this article, "Our ability to rescue and redeem a wayward soul is directly linked to our level of sanctification.  Therefore, we are told that before we attempt to pluck out the mote in another's eye we must first excise the beam from our own.  (Matt 7:3-4)  That process requires the Holy Ghost.  As we pray for the Lord's help to rescue our children, we might be surprised that He focuses His attention on us first.  The Lord might use the child's situation to sanctify us.  If we will submit to the refiner's fire, once we emerge from it, we will be in a much better position to help our children when they experience it."

He also said, "It is a well-known fact that the sacrament serves to align our lives with Jesus Christ like a compass aligns us to true north."  

We can be the masters of our mental compass as well.

In the book "The Secret" Michael Bernard Beckwith said, "Whatever thought has done in your life, it can be undone through a shift in your awareness."

That is the power of repentance.  That is the power God has given us to change our course direction towards true north.

I also read in the book TS that "you have the power to change anything because you are the one who feels your feelings.  Feeling good and attracting good feelings are able to bring you higher and higher.

Remember who is the author of negativity--Satan.  And the author of positivity--God.

You can completely change every circumstance and event in your entire life, by changing the way you think.

TS says "your life is in your hands."  While this is partly true because of our power to act and choose, I also believe our life is in God's hands if we let it be.  Things we cannot master power over on our own, the weaknesses God gave us, are to give us some dependence upon Him.  Jesus Christ is THE one who can make us able--able to do whatever God asks us to do that is good and right.  Able even to change a lifetime of incorrect and negative thinking patterns over into positive ones.

However, I do agree with D&C 59:29 where we are agents unto ourselves and the power is in us to do many good things of our own free will and choosing, as they put it in the book TS, "No matter where you are now, no matter what has happened in your life, you can begin to consciously choose your thoughts and you can change your life.  There is no such thing as a hopeless situation.  Every single circumstance of your life can change."  Is this not a God-inspired statement!  If everyone on earth lived by that, how our world would change for good!

President James E. Faust said, "The power to change is very real, and it's a great spiritual gift."  (Ensign 11/07 The Power to Change, written just months before he passed away.)

My favorite, Elder John H. Groberg said, "Sometimes when things aren't going right, we think we need to get away from a place or a person.  Sometimes that helps, but most of the time what we need is to get away from our old self and our selfish feelings.  We can leave a place behind, or we can stay in that place and leave our selfishness [or feeling sorry for ourselves I would add] behind.  If we leave a place and take our selfishness with us, the cycle of problems starts all over again no matter where we go.  But if we leave our selfishness behind, no matter where we are, things start to improve."  (In the Eye of the Storm pg. 39)

TS, pg 121 says, "Even if you're having a really hard time in a relationship--things aren't working, you're not getting along, someone's in your face--you can still turn that relationship around."  [Now that's power!!]

What I have learned this past year is that repentance & forgiveness unlock the power to change.  I had an issue where I finally realized that I needed to repent in order to more fully forgive.  Repentance was just a matter of correcting my course, which turned out to be the way that I was thinking, both about myself and the person I had the issue with.  I am still in awe of how affective this has been, and continues to be.  Not that anything else changed, except just the manner in which I now direct my thoughts.

All negative patterns are learned behaviors and can be unlearned.

Power to change comes from a perspective of things (as in the fall, mortality, opposition) grace, (we can't make it alone--the atonement is in place) and strength (to change, not eliminate our circumstances.) 

Only He, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior, gives us power to live, to progress, to heal.  Draw upon the power of His Atonement, where there is infinite power!