We cannot create our own path and expect God’s promised outcomes. To expect His blessings while not following the eternal laws upon which they are predicated18 is misguided, like thinking we can touch a hot stove and “decide” not to be burned.

We cannot create our own path and expect God’s promised outcomes. To expect His blessings while not following the eternal laws upon which they are predicated18 is misguided, like thinking we can touch a hot stove and “decide” not to be burned.

You may know that I used to treat patients with heart failure. Their best outcomes were obtained by following established, evidence-based treatment plans. Despite knowing this, some patients tried to negotiate a different treatment plan. They said, “I don’t want to take so many medications” or “I don’t want to undergo so many follow-up tests.” Of course, patients were free to make their own decisions, but if they deviated from optimal treatment plans, their results suffered. Patients with heart failure cannot choose an inferior course and then blame their cardiologist for inferior outcomes.

The same is true for us. Heavenly Father’s prescribed path leads to the best eternal outcomes. We are free to choose, but we cannot choose the consequences of not following the revealed path.19 The Lord has said, “That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, … cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment.”20 We cannot deviate from Heavenly Father’s course and then blame Him for inferior outcomes.

Dale G. Renlund, April 2022 General Conference

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/04/36renlund?lang=eng

Reminds me of this teaching by Elder Renlund:

http://quotestokeep.blogspot.com/2022/08/we-cannot-substitute-our-own-rules-for.html

Men and women receive their agency as a gift from God, but their liberty and, in turn, their eternal happiness come from obedience to His laws.

Men and women receive their agency as a gift from God, but their liberty and, in turn, their eternal happiness come from obedience to His laws.

Obedience to Law Is Liberty

April 2013

L. Tom Perry

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/04/obedience-to-law-is-liberty?lang=eng&verse=#p

We will take care of the rule first, and then we will see to the exceptions.

As mission president, I attended a mission Relief Society conference. Our mission Relief Society president, a relatively recent convert, announced something of a course correction. Some local societies had strayed, and she invited them to conform more closely to the direction set by the general presidency of the Relief Society.

One sister in the congregation stood and defiantly told her that they were not willing to follow her counsel, saying they were an exception. A bit flustered, she turned to me for help. I didn’t know what to do. I was not interested in facing a fierce woman. So I motioned for her to proceed. Then came the revelation!

This lovely Relief Society president, small and somewhat handicapped physically, said with gentle firmness: “Dear sister, we’d like not to take care of the exception first. We will take care of the rule first, and then we will see to the exceptions.” The course correction was accepted.

Her advice is good for Relief Society and priesthood and for families. When you state a rule and include the exception in the same sentence, the exception is accepted first.

The Relief Society, April 1998 General Conference, Boyd K. Packer