Choices

Both of these quotes come from previous Harry Potter movies/books and they struck me as being so significant that I wrote them down and saved them.

“It is not our abilities that show who we really are – it is our choices.”

“Dark and difficult times lay ahead. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right – and what is easy.”

And we all know that much of the time what is right is not easy. Joan of Arc understood that. At age 19, as she was preparing to be burned at the stake, she was given the opportunity to gain her freedom by denying her beliefs. In choosing the fire over freedom, she said this: “I know this now. Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing and so they give their lives for little or nothing. To surrender what you are and live without belief is more terrible than dying, even more terrible than dying young.”

President Benson said something I consider very significant and that (for me, anyhow) ties into the above insights. “God loves us. He’s watching us, he wants us to succeed, and we’ll know someday that he has not left one thing undone for the eternal welfare of each of us. If we only knew it, there are heavenly hosts pulling for us – friends in heaven that we can’t remember now, who yearn for our victory. This is our day to show what we can do – what life and sacrifice we can daily, hourly, instantly, bring to God. If we give our all, we will get His all from the greatest of all.”

So we must make the hard choices, and understand that it is not going to be easy. But it will be right.