Will and free choice are not two powers, but one

Like most kids, I didn’t enjoy doing household chores. Even as a full-grown adult, assuming this space is safe, I’m still not that big of a fan. Whenever I would tell my parents that a particular task was too difficult or what they were asking me to do wasn’t fair, they would inevitably respond with the proverb, “Where there is a will, there’s a way.”

I never knew what that phrase meant other than I couldn’t play with my friends until my room was clean. Not long after I heard it, I’d somehow summon the will to shove everything under my bed. Finally, I could go outside and play baseball in peace.

It would be years before I discovered Thomas Aquinas. “The will and free choice are not two powers, but one,” he famously wrote. This is something I struggle with to this day. I know what I should do, but I can also talk myself out of it. I’m very persuasive when debating my will. To make things easier, no adults are around to dole out punishment if I don’t do what I should.

Grant that I may never crave to do things impulsively, nor disdain to do what is burdensome,

Lest I begin things before I should or abandon them before finishing.

 St. Thomas Aquinas