We had a real fine lesson this evening from Moroni chapters 8 and 9. We discussed the topic of infant baptism along with many of the associated principles and doctrines that Mormon discusses with his son, Moroni. One of the sisters had an ahah moment as we discussed verse 15 of chapter 8. Just as Elder Gowans was about to teach the principle here, the Spirit inspired the following thought, "As an infant you don't have the agency to choose whether or not you are baptized, it is the parents decision. As an adult you have the agency and you have the opportunity to choose. So how could God be a just God in requiring an infant to be baptized, when there is no agency on the part of the infant to choose?" The entire plan of salvation rests on, 1. Jesus Christ and His atonement, and 2. Our ability to choose right from wrong, our agency!

The next topic was from chapter 9, Anger! We discussed how anger is a choice. When angered we are really reacting to a previous input. For example, if someone lies to me, my first reaction might be betrayal; and with that anger may follow, "To think, he betrayed me!" So, I allow, I choose to become angry. Rather, I could choose to act in another way. I could choose simply to say, "I'm sorry, you lied to me; why would you do that?" Anger gives way to the devil having more power over us than the Spirit of God; when we choose to be angry, we choose to give over our self-control to the devil and he begins to take charge over us. This is why we see such terrible destruction among the Book of Mormon people, they allowed their anger to erode away their agency.