To listen or not to listen? LDS leaders emphasize the power of choice

In a world where many people focus on everything they don’t have and blame all their problems on others, on Oct. 2-3 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints declared through multiple leaders that everyone has a choice.

At the church’s semi-annual General Conference, a singular message about agency was given across two days and five sessions. The God-given right to choose how you live may or may not have been the conference’s central message.

With talks named “Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life,” “Faith – the Choice is Yours” and “The Three Rs of Choice,” the message is very clear that excuses about personal trials are no longer valid.

“Agency is precious,” said Boyd K. Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “We can foolishly, blindly give it away, but it cannot be forcibly taken from us.”

“Remember, brothers and sisters, any kind of addiction is to surrender to something, thus relinquishing agency and becoming dependent,” Elder M. Russell Ballard said.

There were an abundance of talks about gratitude, missionary work, reaching out to others, serving and bringing others to the gospel of Jesus Christ. These were all orbiting around the nuclear message that no matter what the world does, the ability to choose is always ours.

The church has very strong stances on a lot of issues. This conference showed that though the church’s view often differs from popular opinion, the church believes that everyone has the right to choose.