Righteous Desires

We were having a little family council and were discussing important upcoming decisions for our family.  We asked the girls to remember to pray for these things to help our family know what to do.  In that very moment they both rushed off to pray.  (I thought that was so cute, we meant praying generally and in the near future, they knew better--pray always!)  A few seconds later Viana came back and said she knew our decision was good because she got a warm feeling in her heart.  Brooke then said, "I did not get a good feeling, but I prayed to find my lost Cinderella doll."  We all have our agency and you can't force anything!  Brooke prayed for what was in her heart at that moment, and I sure hope she can find her doll!

Agency

On Sunday we were able to go to a baptism for a youth in our ward. It was great and Ally enjoyed going. Daniel did too since he got a nap. Anyways, during the baptism our friend's car was broken into and her wallet was stolen (so not fun to deal with all of that for her!). While we stayed after to help her out Ally was very concerned about the type of person that had stolen "L's" wallet. We talked about it all for so long. After the discussion about the difference between good and bad choices she said, "That person made a sad and bad choice. Bad choices make Heavenly Father sad." It made me happy to know that she is starting to understand the concept of why we choose to do the things we do.

Choosing righteousness, Holy Ghost

Today we were watching a movie and Viana asked me why a character we thought was good was revealed to actually be a bad guy. I told her that he was jealous and sad and that is why he became a bad guy. She then said to me, "I get jealous and sad sometimes, but I'm not a bad guy." I told her that is because she was still able to choose to be good.
Tonight during FHE Viana was teaching the lesson and she bore her testimony that the Holy Ghost can help her to chose what the right things she should do are even when she feels sad.

I was so happy to see Viana applying our discussions and her real life to the gospel principles she is learning, and that she can recognize how to make good choices.

Agency

“Thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee” (Moses 3:17). As Brooke recently taught in FHE and as I taught in my gospel essential class, agency is an eternal principle. We are here on this earth because we wanted to have the freedom to choose that the plan of salvation provided for us. I was cutting CharlyAnn's fingernails today, and she did not like it one bit, nor have any of my other children. Was she previously doing something else with her hands? No. Did it hurt? No. Did it take away her agency? Yes. Isn't that interesting how simply in-born we are with our desire to keep that agency that we had in our premortal life.

Agency

Tonight Viana asked Eric a question about why he had rasied his hand on only one word during scriptures to which he replied, "I don't know." Viana said, "You do know 'cuz you're you!" We are not objects being acted upon but agents who act. One of our greatest gifts is our agency and the opportunity we have to make our own choices. We have the power to decide for ourselves, whether good or bad.