Agency

1. These scriptures teach how to overcome the effects of wrong choices, whether they be lying, stealing, gambling, addiction to alcohol or drugs, immorality, inflicting abuse, or anything like it. Simply stated, one must use his agency to obey truth.
   -Healing Your Damaged Life, Richard G. Scott (October 1992 General Conference)

2. We tend to think of agency as a personal matter. If we ask someone to define “moral agency,” the answer will probably be something like this: “Moral agency means I am free to make choices for myself.” Often overlooked is the fact that choices have consequences; we forget also that agency offers the same privilege of choice to others. At times we will be affected adversely by the way other people choose to exercise their agency. Our Heavenly Father feels so strongly about protecting our agency that he allows his children to exercise it, either for good or for evil.
   -Answers to Life’s Questions, M. Russell Ballard (April 1995 General Conference)
   
   
3. Agency is a divine gift to you. You are free to choose what you will be and what you will do. And you are not without help. Counsel with your parents is a privilege at any age. Prayer provides communication with your Heavenly Father and invites the promptings of personal revelation.
   -Choices, Russell M. Nelson (October 1990 General Conference)

4. The principle of spiritual self-reliance grows out of a fundamental doctrine of the Church that God has granted us—agency. I believe that moral agency is one of the greatest gifts of God unto His children, next to life itself.
   -Christlike Attributes—the Wind beneath Our Wings, Dieter F. Uchtdorf( October 2005 General Conference)

5. Our agency—our ability to choose and act for ourselves—was an essential element of this plan. Without agency we would be unable to make right choices and progress.
   -Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life- Robert D. Hales (October 2010 General Conference)
   
   
6. We tend to think of agency as a personal matter. If we ask someone to define “moral agency,” the answer will probably be something like this: “Moral agency means I am free to make choices for myself.” Often overlooked is the fact that choices have consequences; we forget also that agency offers the same privilege of choice to others. At times we will be affected adversely by the way other people choose to exercise their agency. Our Heavenly Father feels so strongly about protecting our agency that he allows his children to exercise it, either for good or for evil.
   -Answers to life’s questions- M. Russell Ballard (April 1995 General Conference)
   
   
7. Often, however, agency is misunderstood. While we are free to choose, once we have made those choices, we are tied to the consequences of those choices.
   - Addiction or Freedom- Russell M. Nelson (October 1988 General Conference)
   
   
8. Agency suggests something very important—trust. Trust on the part of all. Now, just as God trusted us with all he had created here on earth, we must trust his knowledge and love and each other. - Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters – Spencer W. Kimball (October 1978 General Conference)
   
   
9. Free agency means the freedom and power to choose and act. Next to life itself, it is man’s most precious inheritance. - Church Welfare Services’ Basic Principles- Marion G. Romney (April 1976 General Conference)
   
   
10. Your agency, the right to make choices, is not given so that you can get what you want. This divine gift is provided so that you will choose what your Father in Heaven wants for you. That way He can lead you to become all that He intends you to be. 5 That path leads to glorious joy and happiness.- Finding Joy In Life-Richard G. Scott (April 1996 General Conference)

In 1973, President Monson taught the three R’s of free agency: the right of choice, the responsibility of choice, and the results of choice. I would add a 4th one: react. The way we react to things that effect our lives is just as important to what we chose to do. Sometimes we don’t have control of what comes our way. If a trial comes and we react to it in the sense of “why me” and then slip into the doldrums of being beat we don’t allow for the act of faith. Sometimes the act and the action of agency is to take responsibility for actions and then to make things better.