Obedience Opens Opportunities

When I served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Philippines, my mission President, David Martino, had a I came to really love.  He would simply say, "Obedience opens opportunities."  I strove then to apply it my missionary work and still strive to apply it to my daily life.  Because, IT IS SO TRUE!  I was reading last night in the book of Helaman.  Where an ancient day prophet tells us how we can be happy. (I promise it all ties together... just go with it) In The Book of Mormon, in Helaman chapter 14 verse 31, Samuel the Lamanite tells us that Heavenly Father "hath given unto [us] that [we] might know good from evil, and He hath given unto [us] that [we] might choose life or death;"  In a different place in the Book of Mormon, Nephi, another prophet, helps us understand this better.  He says, "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man.  And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil....I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life".  And while I'm quoting really great scriptures, let's throw in one from the Bible.  Romans 6:16 "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants ye are to whom ye obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness."

So there it is, right?  Our gift of agency.  It has been "given" unto us.  We are free to choose.  We can choose to follow Jesus Christ or we can choose to follow Satan.  We can choose sin or we can choose righteousness.  But we can see that if we choose to obey, we choose for ourselves liberty and eternal life in the life to come.  But not only that, if we go back to what my Mission President says, "Obedience opens opportunities," then we realize that by following the Savior, by being obedient to His gospel and His commandments, that we choose for ourselves opportunities and blessings in this life as well.  We choose happiness.  So not only does obedience open opportunities for us, obedience ultimately brings happiness.

It's true, people.  I promise.  It's real life.  All He asks is that we obey and then he "doth immediately bless [us]" (Mosiah 2:24).  It's like one of those stupid Algebraic proofs that I had to do in High School and despised with a fiery burning passion.  But I guess it applies to life after all.  You start with one variable, and work through the problem, and the solution is always the same.  If you start by being obedient, even though it may be hard or things may seem for a minute like a disaster, the outcome will always be blessings and happiness.  I've had one of those weeks.  I mean, obviously I'm not perfect.  Not anywhere even remotely close to perfection, but still just trying my best.  I've tried my best to be exactly obedient in following the Savior, and I've seen blessing after blessing pour into my life.  Every day is the happiest day ever if we "obey from the heart" (Romans 6:17).  I wish I could just give you all my testimony of this so that you could just do it and experience all of the blessings as well, but all I can do is just plead with you to try it out for yourselves.  And try it out long enough to really see the results.  I promise the outcome will be blessings and happiness.  After all, obedience opens opportunities.  Opportunities for blessings and happiness and much, much more.