The Importance of Agency in God's Church

Today I read Leviticus 8 where Moses is commanded to take Aaron and anoint him to be a priest in front of the entire congregation.  This scene reminds me of nothing so much as in our modern day having someone who is recently called to a position sustained by the congregation.

The Lord's church and plan of salvation has always been about choice and voluntarily making commitments.  The Lord never forces us to do anything.  Every covenant we make, every ordinance we participate in, is always participated in by our own choice.  Even the most sacred of covenants we enter into in this life, in the temple, before we do so we are invited to leave if we don't want to make the covenants that will be required of us.

Agency, or the ability to act and not be acted upon, has always been fundamentally important to God's plans.  It's so important that Heavenly Father banished 1/3 of His children from our of His presence and condemned them to Outer Darkness and never having a body.  Satan of course was banished for trying to steal the power and glory of God, but the 1/3 host of heaven was banished because they wanted to destroy the agency of man.  At least that is my understanding of it all.  Agency is not only important to the plan of God, it is the foundation of it.  We will always have a choice when it comes to the things of God. 

Now, I personally feel that once we make those covenants with God, we have freely given our Agency to Him and no longer have the choice, but rather must obey what God tells us to do.  That is the choice we made.  Just like when I married my wife, I gave up my agency to be single or divorce her.  I took her into my life and agreed to become one flesh with her and take care of her on behalf of God.  I gave up my agency to be alone.  That is how I choose to look at it.  When my wife and I first got married we agreed that no matter how bad things got, divorce was never an option.  I think if more people approached their marriage like this things would go a lot smoother in life. 

Of course for that to work spouses would have to treat each other very well.  I am appalled at how I hear people speak to and about their spouses.  It's no wonder there is so much divorce.  So many couples are trying to be single people who live together and have sex from time to time instead of becoming one flesh.  There is a reason we are commanded to become one.  If you treat your spouse the way you want to be treated, there should be no problem.  What a world that would be!  Until tomorrow.