Choices

It’s not always easy to make choices. We all experience some anxiety trying to figure out what’s best for our life. There are very few clear-cut answers and a lot of gray space. I often feel a lot of anxiety when trying to make even the simplest of decisions. I suppose I’m very conscious of the fact that our time here on Earth is limited and that we have an eventual goal of reaching perfection in the next life. As Lehi says in 2 Nephi 2:

27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

See what I mean? The choices are eternal life or eternal death in the end. Plenty to get stressed out over.

So how do we choose what to do? What part does personal revelation play in all of this? How can we make sure we’re choosing the right? One piece of counsel comes from President Monson:

Most of you are familiar with Alice in Lewis Carroll’s classic novel 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. As she contemplates which way to turn, 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.”1

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

...As we contemplate the decisions we make in our lives each day—whether to make this choice or that choice—if we choose Christ, we will have made the correct choice.

And the beauty of it all is that we’re here to learn by making mistakes and then doing better next time. So, even if we mess up, we can be assured that Christ’s Atonement can fix whatever we’ve done wrong. The important thing is to choose, and to try!