While making perfect choices all of the time is not possible, "it is possible to make good choices we can live with and grow from," President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, said Saturday evening.

President James E. Faust

He told of Kieth Merrill, who as a youth succumbed to pressure from his friends to dive 80 feet from a sheer rock wall at East Canyon Reservoir northeast of Salt Lake City.

"He had made a rash decision," President Faust said. "It was not what he wanted to do nor what he felt was right. Instead he had based his decision on the prodding and dares of a half dozen young men whose names he cannot now even remember."

Though he was grateful to survive the dive, Brother Merrill commented later in a New Era article President Faust quoted: "I was living in the world, and at that moment I was out of the world because I was not in control of myself. I was not making decisions about my own life. The world made the decisions for me."

President Faust remarked: "It takes a certain kind of courage to stand back rather than leaping forward, foolishly allowing someone else to make our choices for us. We can more readily take firm stands when we have a clear idea of our identity as sons of God and bearers of the holy priesthood, having a bright potential for a meaningful future."

Though some choices are irreversible, many are not, he said, noting the principle of repentance. "Learning by experience has value, but the school of hard knocks is deserving of its name," he said. "Progression comes faster and easier by learning from our parents, those who love us, and our teachers. We can also learn from the mistakes of others, observing the consequences of their wrong choices."

Some choices present good opportunities no matter which road one takes, such as deciding on a career path or a school to attend, he said.

"Some of our important choices have a time line. If we delay a decision the opportunity is gone forever. Sometimes our doubts keep us from making a choice that involves change. Thus an opportunity may be missed. As someone once said, 'When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that in itself is a choice.' "

Some choices, such as selection of a marriage partner, bear greater consequences than others, he said.

"Some important choices for fulfillment and happiness should be made only once and then, having been made, never have to be made again," he observed. He then told a 1976 experience of Elder Robert C. Oaks, now of the Seventy. A U.S. Air Force colonel and member of a negotiating team, he was at a dinner hosted by Soviet naval officers. As a toast was being led, the soviet admiral noticed Col. Oaks had pink lemonade in his glass instead of the Russian vodka the others were about to consume. The admiral demanded he fill his glass with vodka. Brother Oaks declined.

"Within seconds," President Faust said, "the Soviet interpreter, an army captain with whom he had previously discussed religion, whispered to the host admiral, 'It is because of his religion.' The admiral nodded his head, the tension immediately diffused, and the program moved on. Elder Oaks had decided years before that he would never drink alcohol, and so in the moment of trial he did not have to make this choice again. Elder Oaks was convinced that more harm would have come to him if he had compromised a tenet of his faith than the harm that would have come from drinking the vodka. Incidentally, adhering to his religious principles did not hurt his career. After this incident he went on to become a four-star general."