Choose to Return Home to Him

While it is certainly true to say that the Lord’s desire for each of us is to return to Him, this statement lacks a key component that was emphasized in general conference this past week. President Nelson said this: “The sealing power is supernal evidence of how much God loves all of His children everywhere and wants each of them to choose to return home to Him.” Elder Kearon also said this: “God is in relentless pursuit of you. He ‘wants all of His children to choose to return to Him,’ and He employs every possible measure to bring you back.” Elder Paul B. Pieper similarly said this about God’s plan: “He would teach us eternal laws, create an earth, provide us with mortal bodies, give us the gift to choose for ourselves, and permit us to learn and grow by making our own choices. He wants us to choose to follow His laws and return to enjoy eternal life with Him and His Son.” All of these statements highlight that what the Lord wants most for us is to choose to return to Him and enjoy eternal life with Him and with the Savior. No one will be compelled, and as much as He wants us there, He will not force us to return. President Nelson also emphasized this idea five years ago in another conference address when he said, “God’s objective should be our objective. He wants His children to choose to return to Him, prepared, qualified, endowed, sealed, and faithful to covenants made in holy temples.” I think this is important to remember, especially as we seek to help children in living the gospel. Our goal should not just be that they do what is right but rather that they learn to choose themselves to do what is right. There is certainly an important difference between the two, and this suggests that we must let them make real choices and have the opportunity to chose differently than we might want them to.

                After giving the Saints the commandment to leave New York and go to Ohio, the Lord said this: “Behold, here is wisdom, and let every man choose for himself until I come. Even so. Amen” (Doctrine and Covenants 37:4). That is the pattern: the Lord gives us wisdom through His commandments, and we are then left to choose for ourselves. As parents, that is the example we are to follow. We teach our children truth, we show them wisdom, we encourage them to follow it, and then we let them choose for themselves where appropriate. The older the child is, the more we must let them make choices for themselves as we strive to help them choose the Lord. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we let them do anything they choose. My daughter, for example, suggested that when she turns 15 she can take our car and go wherever she wants. When I informed her that the driving permit she might receive at that age requires that a parent be with her all the time, she quickly responded that I could come with her but that she could still do whatever she wanted and go wherever she chose. That is certainly not going to happen, but it is important that she be given the opportunity as much as possible to make choices with the knowledge and light of the gospel. It is surely not a coincidence that in Doctrine and Covenants 93 the Lord taught about both agency and raising children. He taught about the fundamental importance of agency: “All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light” (v30-31). But then He also commanded, “But I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth,” and said specifically to Frederick G. Williams, “You have not taught your children light and truth, according to the commandments” (v40, 42). It is not enough to give our children agency; we must teach them light and truth and guide them on how to use it to “forsake that evil one” of their own choosing so that they will indeed choose to return home to Him.