Freedom of Choice, an Eternal Principle

Last Sunday's Relief Society lesson was based on Chapter 3 from the Ezra Taft Benson manual. Alicia did a fantastic job teaching and there were a lot of really good comments.

Here are some quick points we covered:

1. A great use of our agency is choosing to keep the commandments. Plus we are better able to keep our agency that way because we do not get addicted to various sins and bound by consequences.
2. Steps of decision making:
1. Study it out
2. Pray about it
3. Actively wait for an answer (read the scriptures, listen to the prophet, think about it more)
4. Have patience while waiting for an answer
5. Have faith in the answer you receive
3. If we trust in the Lord and consult him when making decisions, we will always end up where we are supposed to be. He wants what is best for us and will not lead us astray and will not let us make a wrong choice without giving some warning.
4. Sometimes the Lord just lets us make our own decisions.

The part about decision making got me thinking about a decision my husband and I made recently. We were trying to decide where he should work after graduating. The choices were a small town in California, at a job with really awesome benefits, and the chance for my husband to help program jets and missiles (which was really exciting to him). Or to stay with the company he is currently working at, here in Utah. We didn't want to stay in Utah so we decided to go with the other one. 

However as he was filling out paperwork for the job in California, he felt restless about the decision. I was just excited to be moving out of Utah, but I did feel a tiny bit concerned about the town that we were going to live in, it seemed really run down and dusty.

We were sitting together one evening when my husband came across this video. We watched it and I was actually in tears by the end, we both felt through the spirit that our decision was wrong and that we should stay with the company my husband was currently working at.

Still though, we didn't want to stay in Utah, so we asked if we could move to the Washington location (I don't know why we didn't just do this before... I love the Northwest and it is much closer to our families). We were given special permission to move to Washington a few weeks later and we have never felt better about our decision. I am so grateful the Lord wants what is best for each of us, and helps guide our decisions with a loving hand and through the whispers of the Holy Ghost.

Here is the video again: