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“Without
the condition of personal accountability, the plan of salvation could not
operate successfully,” Elder Dean L. Larsen told students in his
devotional address Tuesday at Brigham Young University-Idaho.
An
emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Larsen challenged students to act rather
than being acted upon.
“There
is a difference between accountability and responsibility,” he said. “Responsibility
relates to a set of duties or expectations that may be placed upon us by
ourselves or by others. Responsibility places us in a position to be
accountable.
“Accountability
has to do with one’s exercising his own will in making decisions and
by following a course of conduct. Self initiative is required . . . yet
accountability must be guided by a knowledge of
correct principles and some degree of experience.”
After
Adam ate the fruit in the Garden of Eden, the Lord said, “Behold, the
man is become as one of us, to know good and evil” (Genesis 3:22).
When one becomes more accountable, one becomes more like God, he said. The
more a person knows, the more a person is accountable.
He
related a story from when he was a bishop. An older
couple had owned a farm their entire life and were wanting to
retire. When none of their children wanted to take over the farming
responsibilities, the couple went to Elder Larsen for help.
“We’ll
do whatever you tell us the Lord wants us to do,” they said. He told
them the decision was not his or the Lord’s, but their own.
“Whenever
we try to avoid the accountability for decisions such as this in our own
lives, we fail to understand one of the purposes we came into mortal life,”
he said. “It is all together proper and wise to seek the best
possible counsel before making crucial decisions.”
He
counseled students to be careful not to prevent other from accountability,
especially when in positions of leadership. In Doctrine and Covenants
121:41-42 the Lord says the proper way to influence the behavior of others
is by “persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and
by love unfeigned. By kindness, and pure knowledge, which
shall greatly enlarge the soul.”
“Manipulation,
programing and regiments are destructive to personal
accountability,” he said. “We cannot be programed
into eternal life.”
He
told students there is a difference between willing obedience and willful
obedience. “One may willingly submit himself to the requirements,
contracts, regulations and domination of another in fulfilling
responsibility or in the performance of good deeds,” he said. “But
until he does it of his own free will, the essential intrinsic development
of personal qualities and values does not occur.”
A
truly accountable person will not require direction, but “in his
desire to emulate the Savior, he will do many good things of his own free
will,” he said.
Next
week’s devotional speaker will be Chris Geddes,
foreign language faculty member at BYU-Idaho. Devotionals are broadcast
live on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. and again at 9 p.m. on KBYI, FM 100.
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