Choices

            We are all faced with choices every day. Our choices start first thing in the morning with the decision to get up and face the day or to stay in bed. This decision is sometimes the most difficult choice of the entire day. I am guilty on some mornings of staying in bed longer than I should, and I pay the price by missing the valuable morning hours.

            Most of us face challenging choices from time to time, and those most critical decisions are often difficult to make. Whenever my children discuss a difficult decision with me, my first question is, “Did you pray about it?” My best piece of advice is to pray about choices.

            This advice is becoming more valuable to me as times passes. Where I once prayed about difficult choices, I find myself asking quick prayers about fairly minor decisions. I will give you a couple of examples of what I consider to be minor choices. They were small decisions in the overall picture, but they were important to me.

            The first decision was several years ago when my husband and I were replacing our windows and doors. We opted to have beige windows installed instead of white ones because we were planning to stain the frames. I went to all the paint stores looking for the appropriate stain but could not find it. I decided that I would have to paint the frames and looked at various paints without being able to come to a decision. I gave up and headed home. I was about half a mile from the store when the Holy Ghost prompted me to go back to the store and buy some paint. I still had no idea what color of paint to purchase, but I turned around and went back. As I stood there looking at all the colors, the Spirit prompted me to purchase a certain color. I bought the paint as prompted, but I also took several different paint chip cards home with me. As I looked at all the colors and compared them with the color of the windows, I decided on a certain color. Then I compared the color that I had chosen with the color that I had purchased and found that it was the same color. With the help of the Spirit, I made the right decision!

            My second example happened a few weeks ago when I stopped at a local nursery to purchase some plants for a new garden. I have researched plants for this garden for months, so I had a fairly good idea what type of plant I wanted. However, I did not know how many of each plant to buy. Again, I went to the Lord for help. Should I get one of these plants or two? With the Bleeding Heart plants, I was prompted to purchase two plants. With another plant, I was prompted to purchase only one. When it came time to put the plants in the garden, I discovered that I had purchased exactly the number of plants that I needed to fill the spot. When I went to another nursery later to purchase more plants, I had the same experience.

            I fully subscribe to the counsel to pray about decisions. When the decision is important, there is a greater need for prayer. Then-Elder Russell M. Nelson spoke on the topic of “Choices” in the October 1990 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and suggested three questions that we should ask ourselves when we have choices to make.

I would suggest three questions you might ask yourself as you consider your options. Whether they are once-in-a-lifetime or routine daily decisions, serious reflection on these three questions will help clarify your thinking. You might wish to review these questions first alone and then with your [spouse].

1. “Who am I?”

2. “Why am I here?”

3. “Where am I going?”

Truthful answers to these three questions will remind you of important anchors and unchanging principles.

As you consider these fundamental questions, it will become clear that decisions you first thought to be purely personal virtually always impact the lives of others. In answering these questions, then, you must be mindful of the broader circle of family and friends who will be affected by the consequences of your choice.

            Elder Nelson then proceeds to discuss the three questions and suggests some possible answers. He suggests that the first answer for “Who am I?” is a simple one. We are all children of God. I should be able to say, “I am a daughter of God.” As I remember that I am a daughter of God, I will also remember that I was created in His image and that I have the potential to become as He is. I will also remember that I came to earth to perform a certain mission in preparation to returning to His presence. As I ask this question, I will also remember that I am a wife, mother, and grandmother and carry responsibility to love and support my family.

            In answer to “Why am I here?” This question can be asked of many situations. I often ask myself a similar question – What did I come in here for? – when I forget why I went to another room. Elder Nelson is speaking about why we came to earth and gives the following answer.

One of the most important reasons is to receive a mortal body. Another is to be tested – to experience mortality – to determine what you will do with life’s challenging opportunities. Those opportunities require you to make choices, and choices depend on agency. A major reason for your mortal existence, therefore, is to test how you will exercise your agency. (See 2 Nephi 2:15, 25.)

Agency is a divine gift to you. You are free to choose what you will be and what you will do. And you are not without help. Counsel with your parents is a privilege at any age. Prayer provides communication with your Heavenly Father and invites the promptings of personal revelation….

            As Elder Nelson explains, we are here on earth for some very important reasons. We are here to gain a mortal body and to be tested. We have the necessity to exercise our agency and the opportunity to make decisions about what we will do and what we will become. Elder Nelson then discusses the third question, “Where am I going?” This is a question that I often ask as I drive around town, but Elder Nelson is asking a much more serious question.

This question reminds us that eventually you (and I) are going to die, be resurrected, be judged, and be awarded a place in eternal realms…. With each passing sunset, you are closer to that inevitable day of judgment. Then you will be asked to account for your faith, your hopes, and your works….

As all will be resurrected, your physical body will then be restored to its proper and perfect frame…. The day of your resurrection will be a day of judgment that will determine the kind of life you shall have hereafter.

That judgment will consider not only your actions, but also your innermost intent and heartfelt desires. Your everyday thoughts have not been lost. Scriptures speak of the “bright recollection” (Alma 11:43) and “perfect remembrance” (Alma 5:18) that your mind will provide in times of divine judgment.

            Our everyday choices are important, so we must make every effort to be sure that they are good ones. We can make good choices, even the best ones, if we will remember to pray about our decisions and to ask ourselves the three questions given by Elder Nelson. As we do this, we will find ourselves making choices that will help us return to the presence of our Heavenly Parents. As President Thomas S. Monson said, “Decisions determine destiny.” When we make our decisions in light of who we are, why we are here, and where we are going and then ask Heavenly Father for help, our destiny will be eternal life with God and our loved ones.

The Choice Is Ours

                    The topic for this Freedom Friday is the fact that we have the freedom to choose what kind of government and nation we want to have.  In November 2012 we will go to the polls to vote for the person we want to be President of the United States as well as the people we want to represent us in the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate.  Who will we elect?

In 2008 the majority of the citizens of the United States elected a President who is nothing less than a socialist.  Everyone should have guessed that Barack Obama was hiding something when he sealed all of his records - birth certificate, health records, school records, etc.  The media failed to do its job in vetting him and gave him a pass.  Americans also elected Senators and Representatives who lean very far left.

Some people could see very early where these liberal and progressive leaders wanted to take us, but most of us were amazed at the speed with which they took us down the road toward socialism and ruin.  They told us before they were elected that they wanted to "fundamentally transform" our nation, and they set about doing exactly that as soon as they were inaugurated or seated in Congress.  The first thing they did was take over General Motors and Chrysler Motor.  Then they forced the banks to make loans to people that couldn't repay the loans.  In spite of the fact that we are watching socialist nations of Europe struggle for sovereignty because of over-extension of entitlement programs, our leaders continue to follow them off the same cliff.  Our nation, like many of the European nations, went into a recession nearly as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Can you honestly say that you as an individual or our citizens as a group are better off than you were four years ago?

The following comment by columnists Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski explains clearly why we need to vote Barack Obama out of office:

"The term `socialism' is misunderstood by many, and the Left spins it as if calling someone a socialist is a personal attack.  They do this to avoid serious discussion of socialism's impact.

"There are two components to socialism.  It's a philosophy that government owes to everyone in society a certain standard of living.  It includes government-provided or subsidized food, housing, education, and healthcare.

"Socialism provides entitlements through massive taxation, and also believes that heavy government regulation leads to a

better society.  It does all this in the name of `social justice.'

                    "No honest person can deny that President Obama's policies fit these criteria.  Government-run healthcare (and calling it a fundamental right, despite the fact that it's nowhere mentioned in the Constitution).  Federal control of education.  Government picking winners and losers in the economy.

                    "History repeatedly shows that free markets work over time, and socialism does not.  But we don't need to plumb the depths of world history.  We have our own recent history.

                    "Since Obamacare, employers have reported that they will have to drop insurance policies covering tens of millions of Americans, and Medicaid spending will increase by $434 billion by 2020.

                    "After (partially) bailing out the housing market, housing remains a depressed and failing sector, and Fannie and Freddie have the gall to ask for $6 billion in additional taxpayer money while paying $13 million in bonuses to their executives.

                    "And this administration deludes itself that it knows how to invest in business.  So it gives $535 million in loan guarantees to Solyndra as a good investment, only to see the company promptly go bankrupt.  Just for good measure the energy secretary illegally restructured this scam to pay off President Obama's fundraisers and stick you with the bill.

                    "Arrogance and incompetence are a toxic combination.  This White House and its cronies are overflowing with both."

Tea Party became active in the summer of 2009, showing up at town hall meetings, writing elected officials, reading the Constitution, and studying history, the words of our Founding Fathers, and current events more than we have done for many years.  I knew as early as June 2009 that I needed to start writing this blog, but I put it off until September because I didn't know what I had to offer to anyone else.  I have written an article every day for more than two years, and I expect to continue writing articles for some time to come.  Many Americans started flying their Stars and Stripes regularly.  Many others are involved in different ways to strengthen our nation.  In 2010 election, the Tea Party was instrumental in helping to elect enough conservatives to the Senate and House of Representatives that our march to destruction was slowed.  Congress seems to mirror our nation - a huge divide and separation of ideas of where our nation should go.

The election in November 2012 will be one of the most critical elections in more than 100 years.  The United States of America is currently standing on the edge of a great abyss, and the 2012 election could very well determine whether we move back to constitutional law and away from this danger zone or whether we go off the cliff into socialism, communism, or Sharia law - and eventual destruction of life as we know it.  The fate of our nation rests on the shoulders of citizens like you and I who will be going to the polls to vote.  We don't have to elect perfect people because no one on earth is perfect, but we must elect the best people that we can find. 

In order to elect leaders and representatives that will help our nation move back from the brink of disaster, we must vote wisely.  It is most important in this election that our citizens study the issues, listen to the candidates, read between the lines, and believe that the candidates are telling us exactly who they are.  Obama and his cohorts told us what they would do.  Some of us believed them and voted against them; others either didn't listen well enough or they liked what they heard. 

WashingtonTimes' editor emeritus Wesley Pruden wrote the following:  "President Obama is … a true believer in the European model of the welfare state.  Everybody who was listening learned that three years ago.  The fact that the European welfare states are crashing is irrelevant to him; true believers are never rattled by facts, not even facts that slap them in the face like a cream pie.  The opportunity to impose a failing welfare state on America is what drew him to the presidency in the first place.  The congressional elections last year, the Republican rout that Mr. Obama rightly called a `shellacking' of his party, made no impression, either.  The results were all about cutting taxes and dismantling government, but not to Mr. Obama.  Those elections were merely a few pebbles in the road to Utopia. 

"The president, with a con man's confidence in the sound of his own voice, is, in the observation of the Wall Street Journal, `making it clear that he is running for re-election on a platform of consolidating the expansion of government of his first two years and raising taxes to finance it.'  He makes everything clear to anyone listening …."

If Obama is re-elected to be President of the United States, our nation will reap exactly what we deserve - a whirlwind to destruction.  Will our citizens follow Obama, like lemmings, off the cliff?  Will we allow him to act as a Pied Piper and lead us in a direction we don't want to go?  Or will we be wise enough to elect someone who will lead our nation with constitutional law and maintain the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution and paid for by the blood of our military members over the past 235 years?  The choice is ours to make, and the consequences will follow as surely as night follows day.  We must choose wisely!