Agents to act and not to be acted upon

Jun 12 2017

If there is one thing I've learned the last 6 months, it's that we can effect the outcome. In the Book of Mormon, it truly outlines the Plan of Salvation, and teaches us this very principle! Specifically in 2 Nephi 2, there are ideas introduced that revolve around agency, and our ability to act. It explains that everything comes with an opposite, kind of like Newtons law of motion about every action has an equal and opposite reaction. There is happiness and sadness. Joy and misery. Freedom and bondage. For every blue there is an orange (contrasting color, right? Maybe?)

Along with the idea of opposition in all things is the concept of things being able to act, and those that are merely agents to be acted upon. Each and everyone of us has many obstacles and trials that provide us the necessary opposition, often times these come in the form of temptations, but equally as often they come in the form of less than sinning weaknesses, such as not wanting to wake up in the morning or having a really hard time saying no to ice cream. No matter what it is, GOD HAS GIVEN US TO BE AGENTS TO ACT! Meaning we have within our power everything necessary to say no, to choose the right, to act in accordance with what God would have us do. 

It's so easy to see the way something is going, be it grades, the world, our bedrooms, whatever and deciding it's the way it is, and we can't do much. NO. The only way we fail is not by failing to reverse the trend, it's by not doing anything to do so. By accepting that it's the way things are and there is nothing we can do about it we are giving up the God given right to act for ourselves and make a difference. 

This has been especially evident to me recently. As a mission and personally in elder Bailey and my area, we've struggling with getting people to Church. Everyone who's served a mission knows the struggle. Haha but every week, President hits it harder, thinks of what else we could do, never ever accepting that where we are is where we need stay. I've tried to take this into my own personal life, and elder Bailey and I have worked our little buns off to try and act for ourselves and manufacture opportunities. And they all fell through. HAHAHA! But the lesson? God blesses those who try, and the ones we planned on coming couldn't last minute, but out of the stinking blue, 2 people showed up of their own accord, and have the desire to want to come closer to the Lord. A reminder that our attempts are futile, but somehow, He magnifies them to accomplish so much more than we even think.

I cannot begin to describe the gratitude I feel for the Savior, and His help in the mighty work of cleansing and perfecting His children!

Love y'all!

Elder Roberts