“How to Make the Choice,” New Era, Jan. 2014, 48
From Church Leaders
How to Make the Choice
From a Brigham Young University fireside address given on March 2, 1975.
Photo illustration by John Luke
When you are discouraged and feel that you cannot solve a problem on your own, you may be right, but at least you are obligated to try. Every personal resource available to you should be committed before you take another step, and you have powerful resources. The Book of Mormon declares this once, which is often overlooked:
“For the Spirit is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And the way is prepared from the fall of man, and salvation is free.
“And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil” (2 Nephi 2:4–5; emphasis added).
It is critically important that you understand that you already know right from wrong, that you’re innately, inherently, and intuitively good. When you say, “I can’t! I can’t solve my problems!” I want to thunder out, “Don’t you realize who you are? Haven’t you learned yet that you are a son or a daughter of Almighty God? Do you know that there are powerful resources inherited from Him that you can call upon to give you steadiness and courage and great power?”
All of you know the difference between good and evil, between right and wrong. Isn’t it time then that you decide that you’re going to do right? In so doing you’re making a choice. Not just a choice, but you’re making the choice. Once you’ve decided that, with no fingers crossed, no counterfeiting, no reservations or hesitancy, the rest will all fall into place.
Most people who come for counsel to the stake presidents, branch presidents, bishops, and others, don’t come because they are confused and they are not able to see the difference between right and wrong. They come because they’re tempted to do something that deep down they know is wrong, and they want that decision ratified.
When you have a problem, work it out in your own mind first. Ponder on it and analyze it and meditate on it. Pray about it. I’ve come to learn that major decisions can’t be forced. You must look ahead and have vision.