Freedom in Keeping Commandments

As a youth and throughout high school I enjoyed playing soccer. Like any other kid who comes across a soccer ball, my natural inclination was just to kick it...and not think about form or aim or distance or direction or anything like that. I just wanted to kick the ball!

I started to develop a bad habit us soccer players call "toe-poking". Instead of kicking with the inside of my foot as I should have done, I consistently lobbed the ball with the tip of my foot. 

Thankfully my coaches taught me how important it is to properly kick the soccer ball. They encouraged me to practice kicking the right way. At first I didn't want to do that. I could kick the ball much farther with the tip of my foot than with the inside of my foot. I was even pretty good at aiming. And besides, what did those coaches know anyway? It's not like they were the ones on the field playing!

Fortunately I had the sense to listen. I learned, over time, that I could kick much farther and much more precisely with the inside of my foot. I developed greater control over the soccer ball. I began to enjoy soccer much more than I had because there were so many new things I could do once I learned to kick the ball the right way.

Sometimes we seem to approach obedience to God's commandments this same way. We desire to do things our way, not His. We think we're pretty good at doing what we do. We fail to consider or willfully ignore that He knows what is best for us.

If we humble ourselves, we learn that we can do so much more when we do things His way. We develop greater ability to serve. We find greater confidence in ourselves and develop greater love for others. And just as I began to enjoy soccer much more once I learned to kick properly, we all enjoy life much more once we learn to keep God's commandments. Our freedom is expanded, not restricted.

King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon said it this way—

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it. (Mosiah 2:41)