"The Peacegiver" James L. Ferrell

"The reason why is that agency does not refer broadly to the ability to choose- our choices are always bounded by certain limitations, after all. Rather, agency has to do with a particular kind of choice. Agency, as used in the scriptures, is the capacity to choose who we will follow- the Lord of Light or the Lord of Darkness. That is the choice that was at stake in the premortal realm. And it is a choice we retain here, even when bound and gagged".
"Actually, it is a choice we may retain, even when bound and gagged, for we can exercise our agency in such a way that we end up losing it as well. Part of having agency is having the agency to give it away".
" Something about sin changes us, kind of like bodily addictions do. We view the world differently after we sin than before. Like Adam, we become more concerned with ourselves and with how we look, and we somehow lose sight of the Lord and our need for Him. We begin to see the world in ways that excuse our indiscretions. And then like a king of addiction, I suppose, we find it easier to continue in sinful paths. In fact, after Adam and Eve's trasgression, Satan was able to get them to do something that never would have entered their minds before-to hide from the Lord".
"As you come to feel fully responsible for the sufferings of those you love, the Lord will take the pain of it from you. He has suffered everything, that we might be spared that fate. Where the pain deserves to be, you will find His love in its place".
"The Savoir and Adam faced a similar choice: If they did not partake, they would become lone man in paradise. Both partook that man might be. And by partaking of that bitterness, adam came to know good and evil, and the Savoir came to know all of the good and evil that had and would traspire in the hearts of men through all generations of time".
"I mean that our appreciation for what Christ did for us will fall abysmally short if we think that he fell on his face merely at the prospect of suffering for a few mortal hours, however excruciating that suffering might be. Both an impact, kind, and degree, what happens in Gethsemane cannot be marked merely by the clock of this fallen realm. Indeed, its impact could be felt from the days of Adam and Eve, even through ny the reckoning of this earth it hadn't yet happened. The atonement happened as much aouside this time as within it, though what was outside we cannot hope to grasp. It was and is an infinite and eternal act, unbounded by the limitations of mortality. No wonder the Savior trembled at the thought of it, and 'would that he might not drink the bitter cup.' Mortal minds, with their earth-bound limitations, cannot comprehend the immensity of it."
"He had never felt so unworthy of her love. And for just that reason, he had never been so likely to receive it."
"Failure to receive an apology is something that needs repenting of as fully as failing to give one."