WHAT WOULD LIFE BE LIKE WITHOUT THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE?



Do you ever feel like you are locked into the same lifestyle or like you never have any choices? In reality you make many choices every day, not only between good and evil but also in tiny, ordinary things. Do we understand how blessed we are to have our agency? There are many choices we make each day that we seldom even think about. It’s routine, it’s habit, and it’s just the way we are. Sometimes it is a source of frustration, like when we live with a roommate or spouse and their choices are different from ours. But what if we had no choice?


This may seem like nonsense because we take choice for granted. Let’s name a few of the choices that may apply to you and see where they take us. You live in the same size and type of brown house that everyone has. You get up in the morning on the left side of bed at 6AM, it’s the only choice there is. You brush your teeth with the same brand of toothpaste everyone else has. There is only one brand.


You shower every other day; it’s your only choice. You get dressed in the same type of blue uniform that everyone else wears. You eat your mush at 7AM, it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not, you have no other choice.


You drive a small, white car, just like the rest of the population and must at your job by 8AM. You work at a factory making toothpaste. You eat your hamburger every day at noon, at your half hour lunch break, like it or not. The toothpaste factory closes at 5PM. You drive home using the same route you used to get to work, no choices. You eat your fried chicken at 7PM and must be in bed by 9PM and you do this day after day after day. What about all the little things you do between those times? They must be the same, regardless of your personal feelings; after all, you are left without choice. Sound ridiculous, dull and boring?


Aren’t you glad things are really not that way? They are not because agency is a blessing and a gift from our Heavenly Father, who loves us.