Agency

“Why has your moral agency been given to you? Only to live a pleasurable life and to make choices to do the things you want to do? Or is there a more fundamental reason—to be able to make the choices that will lead you to fully implement your purpose for being here on earth and to establish priorities in your life that will assure the development and happiness the Lord wants you to receive.”

Richard G. Scott
General Conference, "First Things First"

“By virtue of this agency you and I and all mankind are made responsible beings, responsible for the course we pursue, the lives we live, the deeds we do.”

Thomas S. Monson
General Conference "Choose You This Day"

“A wise woman renews herself. In proper season, she develops her talents and continues her education. She musters the discipline to reach her goals. She dispels darkness and opens windows of truth to light her way.”

James E. Faust, Continuing Revelation - Ensign Aug. 1996

“It is the ultimate design and purpose of our Divine Creator that we develop a Christlike character. A noble character is the product of a life well invested. While our intellect may be the gift of God or ancestral pedigree, our character is man-made and the fruit of personal exertion. In this sense we are a co-creator with our Heavenly Father. Our character is produced from the crucible of human experience. The forging process removes impurities and tempers and shapes us so that we might realize the measure of our creation. Character is the Liahona for our moral conduct.”

J. Richard Clark Choice--The Crucible of Character, J. Richard Clarke (February 14, 1989 BYU Devotional)

“You have your agency, and inspiration does not—perhaps cannot—flow unless you ask for it, or someone asks for you. No message in scripture is repeated more often than the invitation, even the command, to pray—to ask.”

Boyd K. Packer, PERSONAL REVELATION: THE GIFT, THE TEST, AND THE PROMISE, General Conference, October 1994

“We must choose with our agency to obey in faith that the promised blessing will come, that the promise is true because it comes from God.”

Henry B. Eyring, Spiritual Preparedness: Start Early and Be Steady, General Conference October 2005

Our agency—our ability to choose and act for ourselves—was an essential element of this plan. Without agency we would be unable to make right choices and progress. Yet with agency we could make wrong choices, commit sin, and lose the opportunity to be with Heavenly Father again. For this reason a Savior would be provided to suffer for our sins and redeem us if we would repent. By His infinite Atonement, He brought about “the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice.”

Robert D. Hales, AGENCY: ESSENTIAL TO THE PLAN OF LIFE, October 2010 General Conference

Now we are here on earth, where opportunities to use our agency abound; for here “there is an opposition in all things.” 12 This opposition is essential to the purpose of our lives. As Lehi explained, “To bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, … the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.”

Robert D. Hales, TO ACT FOR OURSELVES: THE GIFT AND BLESSINGS OF AGENCY, General Conference April 2006

Some who do not understand the doctrinal part do not readily see the relationship between obedience and agency. And they miss one vital connection and see obedience only as restraint. They then resist the very thing that will give them true freedom. There is no true freedom without responsibility, and there is no enduring freedom without a knowledge of the truth. The Lord said, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31–32.)

Boyd K. Packer, AGENCY AND CONTROL, General Conference April 1983

By “moral discipline,” I mean self-discipline based on moral standards. Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because it is right, even when it is hard. It rejects the self-absorbed life in favor of developing character worthy of respect and true greatness through Christlike service (see Mark 10:42–45). The root of the word discipline is shared by the word disciple, suggesting to the mind the fact that conformity to the example and teachings of Jesus Christ is the ideal discipline that, coupled with His grace, forms a virtuous and morally excellent person.

D. Todd Christofferson, MORAL DISCIPLINE, October 2009 General Conference