PROVO — The wisest choices made amid the onslaught of daily decisions thrust on Latter-day Saints are those that follow God's will, Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve said Tuesday at a Brigham Young University devotional.

Elder Maxwell celebrated the gift of free choice, a gift he said Satan rejected and uses to attack God's children in a world full of temptation.

"His temptation becomes a vexing verification that we're free to choose," Elder Maxwell said.

Vibrant, alluring choices are accompanied by accountability and opposition that at times can seem almost relentless, he said.

"Why can't we just glide through life and cherry pick what we want?" he asked.

It is, he said, because accountability and opposition are necessary elements of free agency, the linchpin in God's plan to provide joy.

"Not being able to choose," Elder Maxwell said, "would be no life at all."

And without free agency, Elder Maxwell questioned whether the creation would have included a Grand Canyon — "Who would have the sensibility to appreciate it?" — or whether there would be men and women of holiness to appreciate and admire — "Who could have been free to choose holiness, or able to appreciate it?"

Elder Maxwell rejected the assertion that choosing to follow Jesus Christ is tantamount to the surrender of choice or freedom.

"Choosing to be obedient is a choice," he said. "Being obedient is a way of life, but it is also the way to life."

That life is eternal, Maxwell said, telling the students at the Marriott Center that he hoped they would find "an alignment with (Christ) that brings us home, where he will give us, he says, all that he hath."

Still, that great blessing remains unavailable until it is freely chosen.

"We worship a God whose character is so stunning," Elder Maxwell said, "and he wants us to come home, but he will not force us. He will not force us."

In fact, there is scriptural evidence of "touching lamentation from long-suffering Jesus" for those whose choice is to reject him and what he offers. Elder Maxwell pointed to two references, the imagery of Christ's desire to gather God's children as a hen gathers her chicks, and the metaphor of the attentive and vigilant lord of the vineyard, saddened by a disappointing harvest, asking what more he could have done.

"He wants us to have joy, and we can't have that unless we are free to choose," Elder Maxwell said, "but neither are we able to have that joy unless we are submissive to his will."

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