This passage, along with Joshua’s “choose you this day” (Joshua 24:15), is one of the most celebrated scriptures on moral agency. It raises an important question of conscience: Do our choices lead us to eternal life? Moral agency was given that all mankind would be accountable for their own actions (see D&C 101:78). Every choice has an impact in determining our destiny.
“To Choose Liberty and Eternal Life, or to Choose Captivity and Death”
David O. McKay explained the principle of agency using the following illustration:
God is standing in the shadow of eternity, it seems to me, deploring the inevitable results of the follies, the transgressions and the sins of His wayward children, but we cannot blame Him for these any more than we can blame a father who might say to his son, “There are two roads, my son, one leading to the right, one leading to the left. If you take the one to the right it will lead you to success and to happiness. If you take the one to the left it will bring upon you misery and unhappiness and perhaps death, but you choose which you will. You must choose; I will not force either upon you.” The young man starts out and, seeing the allurements and the attractiveness of the road to the left and thinking it a short cut to his happiness, he concludes to take it. The father knows what will become of him; he knows that not far from that flowery path there is a mire hole into which the boy will fall; he knows that after he struggles out of that mire hole he will come to a slough into which he will flounder. He sees others who have chosen that path in that same slough, and he knows that in their struggles to get on dry land there will be fighting. He could see it long before the boy reached that condition, and he could, therefore, foretell it. The father loves the boy just the same, and would still continue to warn him and plead for him to return to the right path.
God, too, has shown the world, through His prophets in ages gone by, that many of His people, individuals as well as nations, would choose the path that leads to misery and to death, and He foretold it, but the responsibility is upon those who would not heed God’s message, not upon God. (Pathways to Happiness [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1957], 93–94)
“And They Are Free to Choose”
A wayward child is not the sign of a failing parent. A failing parent is one who has not taught his or her children. We are not perfect, and the Lord is surely aware of that, but we are required to try with all our heart, might, mind, and strength to teach our children the gospel of Jesus Christ (see D&C 68:25–28). As parents we must never give in … never give out … and never give up. Life is fragile and filled with adversity.
My father passed away on Mother’s Day 1947. I was the youngest in our family—a twelve-year-old deacon. I tried to be a good boy. I remember my angel mother when I would ask her what she wanted for her birthday, Mother’s Day, and Christmas. The answer was always the same: “Oh Ed, I have everything one would need. I don’t need anything.” I would implore her, “Mom, I want to give you a present.” Her answer for many years was the same, “ Ed, just be good … just be good.” This was from the heart of a loving, caring, and pleading mother. All she ever wanted for her children was for them to be good. Nothing else really mattered.
I know our joy and rejoicing is in our family—even as is our Heavenly Father’s joy (see Moses 1:39). Having said all this, I know there are times when, after we have done all, our children may choose for a time to turn away from the truth. What do we do? We pray unceasingly (see Mosiah 27:14). We plead and exhort when moved upon by the Spirit (see D&C 100:5–6; D&C 121:41–44). We seek help from others. The goodness of God will then give us a sense of peace, knowing we have done all. Heavenly Father has done all in perfectness, and yet even in His infinite wisdom and power some of His children chose to disobey and follow Lucifer. Our lot is to humbly follow the Lord’s advice: “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed” (D&C 123:17). (Ed J. Pinegar)