Choice and Accountablilty

Every morning we have two hours of study, one hour of personal and one hour of companion. As I was taking that hour to study I fell asleep, but it was not in vain. I had a dream about choice. I was at a car lot. There was a really nice red sports car. It was cheap, really good looking, and fast, but there was a catch. A hidden price that I had to unwillingly pay if I bought this car, there was a ninety percent chance that i would get pulled over and get a ticket every time I drove it. On the other hand, there was a different car. A normal four door sedan, nice paint nothing broken on it, but a little more expensive. The best part was is that there was a zero percent chance of me getting pulled over and getting a ticket. So which one do we choose?
As I woke I pondered on my dream. I had woken up just in time so I had to decide which car I wanted while I was awake. "Which one?", I thought to myself. As I started weighing my options I took into account everything that I had witnessed about each car. The sports car was beautiful, fast, and cheap, just what a teenager is looking for. The other was a nice reliable, four door, normal looking car that was a little expensive. I was in a rut. At first my thoughts were, "Well duh I will take the sports car!" As I thought about my decision I was taken back to the idea of getting pulled over. Ninety percent chance. The other car, even though more expensive now, will be cheaper in the long run because I have a zero percent chance of getting pulled over and getting a ticket.
I pondered what this all meant for some time. I came to the conclusion that the sports car was temptation, it symbolized the wrong path, while the four door sedan symbolized the right path, the gate and way to happiness. Sins may look tempting now. They may be fine in society today, but they are not what we should be doing, because we will pay the consequences later.
Choosing the right path, the right friends, and the decision to live your life worthily starts right now. If we drive that sedan, if we can follow Christ, we will have freedom and happiness. He has already paid for our "tickets", or our wrong doings. All we have to do is follow what He has set for us.

"Stay on the High Road" is a talk in which President Gordon B. Hinckley explains why and how choice is so important.

"In my quiet moments, I think of the future with all of its wonderful possibilities and with all of its terrible temptations. I wonder what will happen to you in the next 10 years. Where will you be? What will you be doing? That will depend on the choices you make, some of which may seem unimportant at the time but which will have tremendous consequences.

"Someone has said, 'It may make a difference to all eternity whether we do right or wrong today' (James Freeman Clarke, in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book [1923], 95).

"You have the potential to become anything to which you set your mind. You have a mind and a body and a spirit. With these three working together, you can walk the high road that leads to achievement and happiness. But this will require effort and sacrifice and faith."

I invite you all to choose the sedan today. Choose whom ye will serve. In 3 Nephi 13:24 it says, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." (see also Matthew 6:24) Choose right now the path that you want to follow, pick the sedan and see how much further you can get with out getting a ticket.