{"id":157,"date":"2009-01-31T22:59:24","date_gmt":"2009-02-01T05:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/?p=157"},"modified":"2009-01-31T22:59:24","modified_gmt":"2009-02-01T05:59:24","slug":"thoughts-concerning-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts Concerning Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Thoughts Concerning Free Agency<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A Chapel Talk<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

By Allyce Cay-Bothmann<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>How free is free agency?\u00a0 <\/span>A child has free agency to the degree of its development.\u00a0 <\/span>A man or woman has a degree of freedom of choice according to his or her education, background, personality and abilities.\u00a0 <\/span>Of course, there are many laws: civil, intellectual, religious; personally adopted and physically accepted, which bear upon decisions \u2013 depending upon the experience of the individual.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Because people are invested in their personal interests and selfish purposes, with very few genuinely concerned for others except in more civilized places, there is at best a veneer of courtesy to keep a semblance of sociability.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Most of us have the idea that we are much freer than is really the case, although we complain a lot about situations that seem to be increasingly restrictive.\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, we may do outlandish things; we may go against all kinds of laws\u2014and depending on ameliorating circumstances, such ignorance delivers the counteracting consequences.\u00a0 <\/span>Through this process we become a little wiser with each reverse of the impulsive action.\u00a0 <\/span>Then who are those of freer agency and who are the ones endowed with wisdom?\u00a0 <\/span>Moreover, how does one live in order to attain the greater freedom?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The Universe has its perfect order.\u00a0 <\/span>The Christ came to demonstrate the liberating rules, which free the individual commensurate with his abilities.\u00a0 <\/span>Each of Christ\u2019s precepts liberates a certain binding force.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The Ten Commandments outline areas for freedom in human affairs.\u00a0 <\/span>The Christ\u2019s Beatitudes, parables and actions give us insight and clues to the conduct preparatory to higher understanding and access to freedoms unheard of on lesser levels.\u00a0 <\/span>Herein lays the divine plan of eternal progress; deeper, widening happiness and gratification made possible by expanding consciousness.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In the Lord\u2019s spiritual teachings, we learn that as we control the human propensities and master the qualities most like those of our divine model\u2014or the perfecting virtues, so we become trustworthy enough to serve and advance in God\u2019s Kingdom.\u00a0 <\/span>Everyone undergoes the various trials according to the summation of his efforts.\u00a0 <\/span>In initial stages of progress people are less amenable to refinements and are simply laying the foundation for their beautiful character.\u00a0 <\/span>If we could recognize the infant or child soul in those of bad tendencies, it would be much easier to manage ourselves in a world of so many young spirits.\u00a0 <\/span>Our Lord said to let the children come to Him for of such is the <\/span>Kingdom<\/span> of <\/span>Heaven<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span>To those ahead of us, we seem as children, and all people, angels and higher beings are children of the One Father.\u00a0 <\/span>When we look at those who seem to be so wrong and who strive against the elevating laws, it is freeing to understand that this is where the Creator has placed them, and that they are our teachers in challenging our strengths and weaknesses.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>There are relatively more severe gaps in the steps between the lower state and the higher one.\u00a0 <\/span>The one between the elemental human consciousness of believing appearances and mastering the processes of reason toward controlled abstract thinking is one of the most difficult and pitiable in retrospect.\u00a0 <\/span>Here the individual is so close to the roiling unbridled emotions that the will is lost in willfulness.\u00a0 <\/span>His choices seem to be to require experimentation in all erratic directions, until the gamut is run, and there is no place to go but up.\u00a0 <\/span>Once one takes this crucial step into the realm of selflessness or tries to live according to our Lord\u2019s teachings, the emotional nature begins to be tamed.\u00a0 <\/span>Then those of the more basic nature are the children of soul, which create the problems and work of their fellows.\u00a0 <\/span>The object of these ensuing experiences is to undergo exercises in self control and to cultivate aims ever pointed to the ideal. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Through our mortal existence, we grow from merely being polite to compassionate understanding of those still in the toils of their emotional ties.\u00a0 <\/span>The Christ\u2019s precepts lift us above the problems here on earth to a level that avoids conflict.\u00a0 <\/span>Eventually we reach the house of the wedding feast, for our efforts have constructed the golden wedding garment.\u00a0 <\/span>We will then have entered the house of our true service and happiness.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Allyce Cay-Bothmann<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Thoughts Concerning Free Agency A Chapel Talk By Allyce Cay-Bothmann \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How free is free agency?\u00a0 A child has free agency to the degree of its development.\u00a0 A man or woman has a degree of freedom of choice according to his or her education, background, personality and abilities.\u00a0 Of course, there are many laws: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapel-talks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}