Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening,
this post should take approximately five minutes to read from start to finish.
This post focuses on a BYU Devotional from February 2003, and it is called "Seasons of Choice" by Brother Randall W. Boothe. This post is part three. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional.
Brother Boothe has mentioned; "... At times in our weariness we may catch ourselves saying, “I just don’t care anymore. I don’t want to choose. I’ll go along with whatever you want to do. I’ll embrace whichever marketing approach is more convincing. I am simply too tired to think this through and choose.”
... We might have to expand Joshua’s invitation to say, “Choose you this minute whom ye will serve. Choose you this day, this week, whom ye will serve. Choose hundreds of times every hour to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We must, of course, enlist the good counsel and influence of the Spirit that we may be directed to those choices that will help us become the woman or man God has planned for us to become.
It is possible to make every important decision in our lives correctly if we can learn to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. What we choose today will influence eternity. Every choice brings us either a step closer to or further from our eternal destiny. We are not victims of circumstance. We have total control. We are the ones who decide how we will react to the environment we find ourselves in.
President Spencer W. Kimball taught: Some people feel that decisions are really out of our hands, that we merely respond to circumstances without choice, ... And I agree that there can come a time when we no longer have control over our destinies, but I believe that this is only after the cumulation of our own past decisions has left us helpless.
In the beginning, each of us is a bundle of potential that can be developed and shaped by what we choose to do. In youth there is still great malleability. We can choose what we will become. As the years go by, we find our past choices have narrowed the alternatives still open to us and we have less and less control over our future. [TSWK, 165]
We cannot do everything at once, but every act every choice opens the gate and leads us down a specific pathway. With every choice thereafter we progress further down that path. Sometimes we must turn around, take some time out, get back in touch with our eternal map, and hang on as the Savior of mankind draws us back closer to our heavenly home.
... At those times when we feel very strong and independent, we might close our hearts to those closest to us who could help the most in our journey over life’s treacherous paths. Don’t close up. Open your heart to the wisdom of life’s precious companions.
Can you imagine how excited we all were in the premortal existence as we anticipated the blessing of exercising our free agency while experiencing life together? ... We may feel somewhat overwhelmed with so many good choices.
I am convinced that there is really only one choice that we must make, and that choice is Jesus Christ. When we choose Him, everything else will naturally follow. The Lord himself outlined His four recommended choices for every season, for every day of our lives: Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am. [D&C 93:1]
These are four simple, righteous choices to make every day. ... Are we ready to choose to commit to the Lord’s plan? Are we ready to choose to forsake our sins and come unto Christ? Will we choose to call on His name? Will our choice be to obey His voice?
Are we prepared to choose to keep His commandments? ... In verse 28 we are promised that “he that keepeth [the Lord’s] commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.” We can know all things!
That has got to be helpful when we are trying to choose wisely. Every season of life is a season of choice. This is not a time for sitting on the sidelines. We must choose to play ball every day, every hour, every season, relying on the merits of our Savior to assist us in this journey of choice. ..."
If you would like to read the whole talk either now or in your own time, here is the link below.
Stay Tuned until next time.
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