"Choose The Right"

From the age of four until they are baptized at age eight, the youth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who participate in the activities of the Primary organization attend CTR classes. During these very formative years, they are schooled in a basic understanding of the gospel and in the meaning and importance of being baptized and confirmed as members of the Church. An important aid to their learning how to properly apply gospel principles in their daily lives is the notion of “choosing the right.” This notion is rooted in the assumption that in almost all important choices that we make in life there is a right choice or at least a better choice among the options from which we may choose in any given situation.

Our ability to make such choices is not of our own creation. It is a God given, protected, eternal principle. While at times this right of choice is referred to as “free agency,” such wording is redundant. We should simply refer to this prerogative as “agency.” Our ability to exercise agency on this earth is facilitated by the existence of two forces and two forces only that act upon us contending for the souls of men and women. They are the light of Christ and the spirit of the devil.

As human beings find themselves contending with these competing forces on a day to day basis, some interesting and false notions emerge concerning the opportunities for choice we derive from the exercise of our agency. One of these is very much a devilish product. Agency gives us no opportunity to determine what is right and what is wrong. Rather, our exercise of agency provides us with the opportunity to do what is right or to do what is wrong i.e., to show ourselves to be either obedient or disobedient to God’s will. If it were possible to determine what is right and what is wrong, then it would be also possible to escape the consequences of disobeying God’s commandments having concluded through the exercise of agency that they did not apply to our situation. The exercise of our agency would then make us unaccountable to God’s law. In truth, we have no such opportunity. The exercise of our agency is very simple, in principle. We either choose to obey God’s will when it is made manifest unto us, or we choose to disobey His commandments. Abraham makes this point abundantly clear. “Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; . . . And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; . . .” (Abraham 3:22, 24-25). There it is. Through the exercise of our agency we choose to follow God’s will or not. It is not within our power of righteous choice to determine which of His commandments we will obey and which of them, any or all, we will decline in favor of another approach to life. Disobedience for any reason to our Father’s commandments ipso facto results in the prescribed consequences befalling us according to our circumstances.

Now applying the will of God correctly to the many challenges and involvements of a single, active day can become daunting. Keeping a helpful rule of thumb in mind should facilitate our making correct decisions when called upon to do so. That is exactly what the Primary children are taught. In each and every situation, we should seek to “choose the right.” For mature adults, Moroni’s counsel is helpful for our understanding of the forces that almost always are behind the opposing choices with which we are confronted. “For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God. But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him” (Moroni 7:16-17).

Another helpful rule of thumb comes from our thirteenth Article of Faith. Here are words and concepts that if inculcated into our thinking will assist us in making on the spot decisions that are the correct or at least the better ones. “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; . . . If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”