This past week in my Book of Mormon religion class I was struck by the significance and importance of agency. I guess I’ve always assumed that agency is important simply because our Heavenly Father gave it to us and because the war in heaven was fought over it, but I’ve never actually thought about the significance of what this agency means. Agency is the ability to act for ourselves and to choose for ourselves what our actions here on Earth will be. The fact that our Heavenly Father and our Savior presented a plan in heaven that allowed us to choose our own actions shows their deep trust in us. Think about it. Why would a loving Heavenly Father even think of letting us make our own decisions if He doubted our ability to live righteously and make it back to Him? He would never have sent us to Earth knowing that there was no chance of us making it back. He knew we would make mistakes, but He ultimately had trust in us and our ability to choose the right.
Our Savior trusted us enough to suffer and to die for us and by completing the Atonement so that we could use our agency to learn from our mistakes, repent, and then ultimately make it back to live with Him again. On the other hand, Satan doubted our ability to live righteously, and he proposed a plan in heaven that took away our agency and didn’t allow us to make our own decisions. He had no faith in us. And why in the world would anyone want a leader or Savior who has no trust or faith in them? I’ve gained a much deeper respect for my agency and for my Savior and Father in heaven because of the trust that they have and the faith that they have put in me. It makes me infinitely more motivated to live my life in such a way to show that I can use my agency to live righteously.
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