The choices we make determine our destiny.

When we entered mortality, we brought with us the gift of agency. Our goal is to obtain heavenly glory, and the choices we make will, in large part, determine whether we reach our goal.

Alice in Lewis Carroll’s novel comes to a crossroads with two paths before her, each stretching onward but in opposite directions. As she contemplates which way to turn, she asks the Cheshire Cat: “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.”

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.

May we choose to build within ourselves a great and powerful faith which will be our most effective defence against the designs of Satan —the kind of faith which will bolster our desire to choose the right. Without such faith, we go nowhere. With it, we can accomplish our goals.

Although it is imperative that we choose wisely, there are times when we make foolish choices. The gift of repentance, provided by Jesus Christ, enables us to correct our course, so that we can return to the path leading to that heavenly glory we seek.

May we maintain the courage to defy the consensus. May we choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.

As we contemplate the decisions we make in our lives each day, if we choose Christ, we will have made the correct choice.

Bishop Aydin Arabacioglu

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

www.lds.org.uk