Free Agency

My sweet little angel!

Recently I learned a beautiful lesson about free agency from my 5 year-old little girl. She was faced with a decision, and at the time I didn't think she saw the decision she was faced with. It wasn't between good and evil or even between right and wrong. It was a choice between good and Christ-like. As I watched her in the midst of this decision that I didn't think she could decipher, I contemplated stepping in to force her to make the decision to be Christ-like. After a quick thought I decided to leave well enough alone--I didn't want to expect too much. A little later I learned that not only had she clearly seen the choice before her, but to my great happiness, she had made the Christ-like choice on her own.
It was a great lesson to me about the free agency Heavenly Father has blessed us with. If I had stepped in and forced Rachel to make the better choice, she would have resented me and it would have driven her further from me and further from making the best choice on her own. But because she made that choice on her own accord, she felt the happiness and light that come with following Christ. As a parent, I felt so happy for my little Rachel and I could see how the good choices we make must bring happiness to our loving Father in Heaven whose work and glory is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man".