President Thomas S. Monson: The three R's of choice

In his priesthood meeting address, President Thomas S. Monson spoke of choices and consequences, grouping his categories into "the three R's of choice," which he identified as the right of choice, the responsibility of choice, and the results of choice,

"I mention first the right of choice. I am so grateful to a loving heavenly Father for His gift of agency, or the right to choose. ...

"We know that we had our agency before this world was and that Lucifer attempted to take it from us. He had no confidence in the principle of agency or in us and argued for imposed salvation. He insisted that with his plan none would be lost, but he seemed not to recognize — or perhaps not to care — that in addition, none would be any wiser, any stronger, any more compassionate or any more grateful if his plan were followed."

President Monson said the Firstborn in the Spirit offered Himself as a sacrifice to atone for the sins of all. "Through unspeakable suffering He became the Great Redeemer, the Savior of all mankind, thus making possible our successful return to our Father."

Of the second "R," President Monson said, "With the right of choice comes the responsibility to choose. We cannot be neutral; there is no middle ground. The Lord knows this; Lucifer knows this. As long as we live on this earth, Lucifer and his hosts will never abandon the hope of claiming our souls."

President Monson spoke of prayer as "the means whereby we could receive from Him God-given guidance to assist in our safe return at the end of mortal life. I speak, too, of the whisperings from that still, small voice within each of us, and I do not overlook the holy scriptures, written by mariners who successfully sailed the seas we too must cross."

President Monson said each of God's children has come to earth with all the tools necessary to make correct choices, including the spirit of Christ, which helps one discern good from evil.

"Although in our journey we will encounter forks and turnings in the road, we simply cannot afford the luxury of a detour from which we may never return," he warned. "Lucifer, that clever pied piper, plays his lilting melody and attracts the unsuspecting away from the safety of their chosen pathway, away from the counsel of loving parents, away from the security of God's teachings. He seeks not just the so-called refuse of humanity. He seeks all of us, including the very elect of God. King David listened, wavered, and then followed and fell. So did Cain in an earlier era and Judas Iscariot in a later one. His methods are cunning, his victims numerous."