1. The power to choose
2. The power to act
3. The power to know good from evil, light from darkness
Therefore, man is free to become spiritually centered or temporally centered. One can overcome this world, master the body, and qualify for the riches of eternity. But there is one big problem. Satan. He fought agency in the pre-existence, and he is fighting it here. How does he do it?
One of the most effective ways to get each of us to give up this power of agency, is to DISOWN. Disowning is making something or someone else responsible for what I think, how I feel& what I do in the current moment of time. I use blaming or labeling to accomplish disownership.
Example:
1. Traffic makes me this mad.
2. My five children cause me to yell.
3. My parents did the same I do.
4. It's the IRS that makes me mad.
5. I do not feel accepted by the ward.
6. Food makes me do it.
7. I just cannot save money.
8. I will never make it to the Celestial Kingdom.
Why is disowning so popular? Because it allows the participant the opportunity to do nothing. His solution is to get others to change so he can feel better without any effort on his/her part. He has given his power of agency to others, to make him happy. The mother will say, "I will sure be glad when Mary gets her grades back up, then I won't have all this stress." She has given her daughter the power to produce stress in her temple. WHICH IS A LIE. The mother is using the daughter's poor performance to produce stress withing her temple, which is spiritual darkness. She does this by focusing on the daughter's poor performance, which is temporal.
**ALL SOLUTIONS TO ALL PROBLEMS ARE FOUND IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD**
The mother tells herself that she is responsible for Mary's poor grades, and a good LDS mother wouldn't have these kinds of problems. All of which are lies. How can one tell? The Holy Ghost does not confirm these statements. What could the mother do to remove the stress? She could go to the spiritual world and seek divine guidance (help). She could review the plan of salvation each morning, pray, read scriptures, and seek spiritual enlightenment until she felt the Spirit. This would confirm that she still is in the strait & narrow path, clean & forgiven, & still a candidate for the Celestial Kingdom. Now that she has hope to be raised up unto Eternal Life, she is prepared to seek divine help with her stewardship to help her daughter, on Heavenly Father & Heavenly Mothers behalf, about her power of agency which can produce results that will bring happiness. She now sees this situation as her opportunity to be steadfast in Christ & practice overcoming the world.
Another example of using one's agency to focus spiritually
Another person who would get mad in traffic, when other drivers would pull in front of him or turn & not signal, or drive too close, or drive too fast, decided to overcome his problem. First, he recognized that he was giving his power of agency to other drivers. Next, he recognized that these drivers were only giving him enticements to see if he would react or respond. He decided to respond. How did he do it?
Whenever a driver enticed him, he would thank Heavenly Father for the reminder, then he would mentally go into the Garden of Gethsemane & feel the sacrifice of the Savior paying for his mistakes, and ask God to help him love the Savior's sacrifice more than the act of the driver. Her heart soften and tears would come to his eyes. He was lucky because he lived around a lot of drivers that would help him go the Garden of Gethsemane. He said that he grew spiritually every time he would drive the car. He felt he had learned how to use the enticements of this world to grow spiritually, and he had learned how to make progress in overcoming this world. One who disowns, would honk, yell, etc... trying to get the other person to change so they could feel better.
-One driver said he overcame the same problem by just picturing the Savior in each car. The Savior had the right of way any time He wanted.
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