Life before birth

Abraham 3:22-23 is today's scripture mastery verse.  It reads:

22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;

 23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

Our existence does not begin at birth, nor does it end at death.  Our spirit is eternal.  God made the earth for us, and He made our bodies for us to dwell in while we are here.  God knows us each better than we know ourselves!  He told Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5) those truths:

5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Those that have been or will be leaders in life have been "called" for those roles before they were even born.  God knows what our talents and capabilities are.  He knows what good we can accomplish here in life. 

Now, I have mentioned in past posts about the importance of our "agency," or our ability to choose.  Just because we have been called to be able to do certain things in life, doesn't mean that we can't choose for ourselves.  That, I think, is one reason why God is angry when we choose to "hide our talents" as the wicked servant in Christ's parable of the talents (found in Matthew 25:14-30)  He has given our talents to us to help and serve others in this life. 

God is angry when we use our gifts and talents to suppress or hurt others.  Joseph Smith teaches us the difference between being called and chosen in Doctrine and Covenants 121:39-40:

 39 We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.

 40 Hence many are called, but few are chosen.

Remember, you are very important to God!  He loves you, and knows you better than you know yourself!  He wants you to make the choices necessary to return to His presence.  That is why he provided the Atonement.  That is why we must have faith in and follow Christ.  For it is only through Christ that we will be able to return to the presence of God.