What is agency?  Most people think that it’s being able to choose our path.  Choose right from wrong.  But I think it means much more than that.  Agency is the ability to choose everything! Even every single thought we think.  As humans, we just haven’t learned how to use this magnificent gift to its full potential.  But this podcast will help you see how you can use it more than you currently are. Play In A New Window Download . . Show Notes: Ensign Magazine - January 2019 Issue Articles referenced: The Gospel: An Eternal Life Hack and Teach Me to Fly: Achieving Emotional Self-Reliance in the Lord’s Way Show Summary: Today I wanted to address the topic of agency.  In my faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we talk about agency quite often.  We talk about it as a gift that as children of God we received so that when we came to earth we could “act for ourselves and not be acted upon.”  We consider it to be the greatest gift we have been given next to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Agency is a big deal. What is Agency? We are taught, in our doctrine, that a war in Heaven was fought in our pre-mortal existence over the whether or not we should have agency.  Satan wanted to force us to do what was right so that everyone would get to return back to our Heavenly Father someday.  But Christ wanted us to be able to choose and He would atone for our sins so that justice and mercy could be satisfied.  And He would choose to give all the glory to God where Satan wanted to keep it for himself. Elder Renlund, in a talk in the October 2018 General Conference said “Our Heavenly Father’s goal in parenting is not to have His children ​DO​ what is right; it is to have His children ​choose ​to do what is right and ultimately become like Him. If He simply wanted us to be obedient, He would use immediate rewards and punishments to influence our behaviors.” A more secular definition of agency is:  “the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices” As members of the Church and as a society in general, I don’t think we understand the extent of what agency truly is.  Most people think that it’s being able to choose our path.  Choose right from wrong.  But I think it means much more than that. I don’t think that agency is just the ability to choose right from wrong, good or evil.  Agency is the ability to choose EVERYTHING.  Including all of our thoughts. I love this quote by Brooke Castillo “Your thinking is the one place that you have complete agency. If your thoughts are getting you the results you want then great, but if they aren't you can always try on some new thoughts and see if you find some that feel a little bit better and get you the results that you're looking for.”  - Brooke Castillo I had this podcast all written and then when I was reading the Ensign this morning I came across this quote and thought that it fit perfectly with what I wanted to share with you today. In Doctrine and Covenants section 9, Oliver Cowdery is chastised for trying to translate the Book of Mormon plates without taking any “thought save it was to ask [God]” (verse 7). He is then admonished to “study it out in [his] mind,” come to his own conclusion, and then “ask [God] if it be right” (verse 8). When we follow this pattern, Heavenly Father is not abandoning us to rely completely on our own abilities and thoughts as we care for our mental health. He is allowing us the opportunity to learn how to exercise our agency. As we exercise our agency over and over again in this manner whenever our emotional well-being is tested, we slowly become better and more confident. https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/2019/01/young-adults/teach-me-to-fly-achieving-emotional-self-reliance-in-the-lords-way?l= Why do we want agency? Agency gives us so much freedom.  A lot of times we unknowingly give away our agency.  When we choose to think that we HAVE to do something.