For this morning's Personal Progress study, I chose Choice and Accountability #3. Record in your journal your understanding of agency, consequences of choices and actions.
Sunday was fun. I was able to attend the talk of a returned lady missionary, who I'd known for years as she grew up. It's amazing that transformation that takes place on a mission. Cheryl came home confident, strong, full of faith, and just beyond elegant. I so loved listening to her share her experiences.
After exchanging welcome back hugs with this sweet returned sister, a big hug came from Amanda, who I simply adore. She reminded me that she and Morgan were graduating next year. Really? Wow, okay that one feels strange to think about. But I do think about all these girls I know and love, and their bright futures, I'm so proud of them as I remember the card my mother gave to me upon my own high school graduation. It had a girl in cap and gown that looked a lot like me, staring back at the tall edifice--which must have been the university tower. The sun shone bright falling upon that place. My wise mother wrote on the card, this represents the temple, and that is your next goal.
It is hard in the teen years to recognize the value and importance of agency, those everyday choices we make. But these are important years that the lead us to or from your heart's desire. For example, if we work hard in school--while all doors are open to opportunities and college of choice in the beginning, they remain open. If we become careless in study and invisible in involvement, and end up with a low GPA, certain colleges start closing their doors. If we chance to get into college, and that habit of heart continues, we can lose our place of education to one who wants it more. Sometimes a detour can take awhile to return again to the previous roadway.
It's the same with standards. If we loosely follow modesty issues, and are careless in dating guidelines--we can find ourselves in situations with grievous consequence. And while the choice to follow the Word of Wisdom keeps us energetic and well, keeping the body which houses the spirit clean, and the mind able to operate the way it is meant to; choosing alcohol, smoking, and drugs can impair judgement and make us ill. Abused enough, it can harm one for the remainder of life and even eliminate us.
Some choices are black and white simple. Others seem gray. We need to be careful not to justify the gray when we know it is not right. Choices for good or bad all have consequences. My son once said, true integrity is choosing right, even when no one is looking. The more good choices we make, the freer we are. Bad choices only lead us to bondage. Substance dependence, a web of tangled lies, burdens of shame and guilt, and distances us from inspiration. We will all be accountable for the way we use our agency.
For me those kinds of choices were made long ago and I am resolute, but I still have to be careful using my agency. I knew that if I made serious choices when I was young, that when I was faced with that peer pressure, it would be easy. But everyday choices still come, and they have consequences. Choices in example, health and nutrition, choices in what I choose to let into my mind in entertainment. Choices in friends and atmospheres I will permit myself to experience, even in how I will use my time, mind, and energies.
The sweet thing is we can also repent and be made clean through the atonement when we make mistakes. And we will, as we learn and grow in that process, man is prone to make mistakes. And as we choose to rise above our mistakes, we learn to become better and better and our best selves.
I have a huge eraser I found at Michaels that reads, for the BIG mistakes. We all make them. And isn't that nice to know? The only thing that can bind our agency, is our own bad choices.
Our good choices is what lets us grow and become all we will one day be, and endows us with the gifts we came here to receive.
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