"Intelligent Use of Agency"

I’m getting ready for BYU Women’s Conference which is being held at the end of the month. The topic I’ve been asked to address is "The Intelligent Use of Agency" and I’m going to be talking about using agency to rid ourselves of unnecessary pain and to get the help we need to see us through the necessary pain. So if I talk a lot about necessary and unnecessary pain in the next couple weeks you’ll know it’s because I’m preparing and am preoccupied with “pain” thoughts.

As I’ve learned about these things I’ve been amazed at how much pain we generate for ourselves. All around me I see examples how the choices people make cause them pain—unnecessary pain. And as I review my own life I can see where I’ve caused myself so much unnecessary pain. Now I understand how getting rid of unnecessary pain is so simple and yet sometimes habit causes me to create or take on unnecessary pain anyway.

I think it is a process. First we have to intellectually learn the concepts, and then it takes time to incorporate the things we have learned into our lives so that they become the habits that direct our lives. Overcoming those old habits is difficult, but it is doable. So I say, “Out with the old and in with the new!” It takes time, but it will happen.