- Another Perspective on Wealth
- Introduction
- Understand the Importance of Perspective
- Understand the Key Principles for Understanding and Using Wealth Wisely
- Principle 1: Ownership - Everything We Have or Will Have is the Lord's
- Principle 2: Stewardship - We are Stewards Over All the Lord has Shared with Us
- Principle 3: Agency - The Gift of "Choice" is One of the Greatest Gifts of God
- Principle 4: Accountability - We Shall Be Held Accountable for Every Choice We Make
- Understand Other Basic Principles on Wealth
- Summary
- Assignments
- Setting Personal Goals
- Understanding and Managing Credit
- Conclusions 1: Learning to Give
- Conclusions 2: Decide to Decide
Principle 3: Agency - The Gift of "Choice" is One of the Greatest Gifts of God
The prophet Joshua counseled the people about agency when he said: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve. . .but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
We were given our agency by a loving Father in Heaven. President Marion G. Romney said, "Agency means the freedom and power to choose and act. Next to life itself, it is man’s most precious inheritance" (Marion G. Romney, Ensign, May 1976, 120).
President David O. McKay wrote, "Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct that life is God’s greatest gift to man. . . . Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than any possession earth can give" (in Conference Report, Apr. 1950, p. 32).
The prophet Lehi, in speaking to his son Jacob, explained: "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so. . . righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad" (2 Nephi 2:11).
The gift of agency was such an important subject that a war was fought in heaven because Satan sought “to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3). We should do everything in our power to thank a loving Father and Son for this wonderful right to choose—and then use that agency as wisely as we can.
