Today Is The Day

 

Do you know where you will be tomorrow?

Choose You This Day

Thomas S. MonsonFirst Counselor in the First Presidency

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Joshua of old declared, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve; … but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” ¹

All of us commenced an awesome and vital journey when we left the spirit world and entered this often challenging stage called mortality. We brought with us that great gift from God—our agency. Said the prophet Wilford Woodruff: “God has given unto all of His children … individual agency. … [We] possessed it in the heaven of heavens before the world was, and the Lord maintained and defended it there against the aggression of Lucifer. … By virtue of this agency you and I and all mankind are made responsible beings, responsible for the course we pursue, the lives we live, the deeds we do.” ²

Brigham Young said, “All must use [this agency] in order to gain exaltation in [God’s] kingdom; inasmuch as [we] have the power of choice [we] must exercise that power.” ³

The scriptures tell us that we are free to act for ourselves, “to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.”

Let us not find ourselves as indecisive as is Alice in Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. You will remember that she comes to a crossroads with two paths before her, each stretching onward but in opposite directions. She is confronted by the Cheshire cat, of whom Alice asks, “Which path shall I follow?”

The cat answers: “That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter which path you take.” ⁶

Unlike Alice, we all know where we want to go, and it does matter which way we go, for the path we follow in this life surely leads to the path we will follow in the next.

        

   As i have learned and grown serving Heavenly Father, i have seen the blessings of choosing to serve him now. We can not wait, as President Henry B. Eyring says, for we do not know what the choices of others may bring to us. Do we have another day? Fill your heart with the desire to follow the commandments and have faith in Jesus Christ. I know that as you follow him you will see a difference in your life. It will be one of a greater peace and love. You will feel better inside and you will feel the love of your Heavenly Father. He desires complete joy and happiness for each one of us and wants all of his children to return to live with him again. I have seen to many people throw there life away because they do not what to do that which may be hard, even if it is worth it. So choose this day to serve Heavenly Father and he will bless you, whether it be in this life or in eternity. I promise it will be worth it.