Chapter 3: Freedom of Choice, an Eternal Principle

President Ezra Taft Benson

“Agency has been given to all of us to make important decisions that will have bearing on our salvation. Those decisions affect our happiness in eternity.”

Galatians 6:7“I grew up believing that the willingness and ability to work is the basic ingredient of successful farming. Hard, intelligent work is the key. Use it, and your chances for success are good.”

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

2.1.

3.

4.

5.

1. In what ways have you seen that “the war that began in heaven … is not yet over”? (See section 1.) What can we do to continue to stand for the principle of agency?

2. People often wonder why God allows evil to exist in the world. How do President Benson’s teachings in section 2 help to answer that question?

3. What can we do to help children and youth understand the truths in section 3? What can we do to help children and youth understand the impact of the decisions they make?

4. Ponder President Benson’s counsel about making “proper, Christ-like decisions” (section 4). What have you learned about combining prayer with diligent effort in making decisions?

5. What does it mean to you to be “anxiously engaged in a good cause”? How does your life change when you do good things “of [your] own free will” rather than waiting to be commanded? (See section 5.)

Joshua 24:15

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.