Sunday, January 13, 2013

Sunday that one day

We heard a week ago that there was this giant stake leadership meeting that was going to be held at 7am this morning. I moaned about it all last night."It's just so cold outside." "7am is just so early." "I know they asked teachers to be there, but is that technically a 'leadership' position? Do I reaaaaalllly need to go?"

I don't know why I complained about going when I knew it would be worth the loss of sleep. Early morning meetings always seem to go that way.

Our stake president talked to us this morning about agency. Personal choice is something that I've really come to value this past year. Especially when I learned (on my mission) that trials are simply another opportunity to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This morning my stake president posed this question, "If the Lord is all powerful and can take care of others, then why does he have us serve others? What's the point of visiting teacher and home teaching? Of any calling?"

It hit me.

Agency.

If Heavenly Father took away our chance to serve other people, that in a way, takes away our agency. We lose the chance to choose compassion. We lose the chance to change. We lose the chance to develop empathy towards others. We lose the chance to learn the meaning of charity. We lose the chance to become like Jesus Christ. We lose our chance at progression.

Agency is everything.

That's what I learned today.

J. Kirk Richards (via)

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