Elder Boyd K. Packer (deceased) President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles… “poignantly described one of the great lessons of his life — a lesson about giving his agency to God. He said, “Perhaps the greatest discovery of my life, without question the greatest commitment came when I finally had the confidence in God that I would loan or yield my agency to Him — without compulsion or pressure, without any duress, as a single individual alone, by myself, no counterfeiting, nothing expected other than the privilege. In a sense, speaking figuratively, to take one’s agency, that precious gift which the scriptures make plain is essential to life itself, and say, ‘I will do as thou directs,’ is afterward to learn that in so doing you possess it all the more” (From Elder Packer’s Book ‘That All May Be Edified’ 1982, 256-57).
President Packer’s teaching that agency is expanded as we yield to God’s will certainly contradicts the prevalent philosophies and pattern of the world. Many secular voices declare that obedience to the commandments of God is restricting and stifling. However, precisely the opposite is true. The unrighteous exercise of agency shackles us with the consequences of our constraining choices. Obedience, on the other hand, is liberating and enlivening. Moral agency expands endlessly when exercised righteously. Acting in doctrine yields the ever-increasing blessings of assurance, direction, protection, and joy.
It can take a tremendous amount of faith and courage to recognize and accept the will of God in our lives. Several years ago there was a young father who had been active in the Church as a boy but had chosen a different path during his teenage years. After serving in the military, he married a lovely girl and soon children blessed their home.
One day without warning their little four year old daughter became critically ill and was hospitalized. In desperation and for the first time in many years, the father was found on his knees in prayer, asking that the life of his daughter be spared. Yet her condition worsened. Gradually, this father sensed that his little girl would not live, and slowly his prayers changed; he no longer prayed for healing but rather for understanding. “Let Thy will be done” was now the manner of his pleadings.
Soon his daughter was in a coma, and the father knew her hours on earth were few. Fortified with understanding, trust, and power beyond their own, the young parents prayed again, asking for the opportunity to hold her close once more while she was awake. The daughter’s eyes opened,and her frail arms reached out to her parents for one final embrace. And then she was gone. This father knew their prayers had been answered — a kind compassionate Father in Heaven had comforted their hearts. God’s will had been done and they had gained understanding (adapted from H. Burke Peterson, Adversity and Prayer” 1973)
Reprinted in Elder David A. Bednar’s book ‘Act in Doctrine’, 47-48
