Making Choices
On the way home from a homeschool Mom’s meeting late one night, I tuned my car radio into a Christian Radio program. The two hosts were discussing sin and choice in our lives; I only caught a few minutes of the middle of the discussion, but what I heard really got me thinking.
One of them said that a person doesn’t just wake up one day and find they’ve become an adulteror or murderer or whatever - that it all began a long time before the final moment with small choices such as…..
allowing one’s eyes to linger on someone across the room..
choosing not to look away when eyes unexpectedly meet..
choosing to allow one’s thoughts to dwell on what ifs….
choosing to seek an opportunity for conversation….
choosing not to confess your struggle to an appropriate person…
letting yourself continue….etc etc
All a small series of steps and choices, at the point of any of which the person involved could have chosen differently and turned away from the destructive path. But, the further down the path you wander, the harder it is to turn away!
And in the same way, you don’t just wake up one morning and find to your surprise that you are overweight and unfit (how did THAT happen?!?) - again, it was a series of choices……..
choosing to eat French Fries instead of salad….
choosing to eat 4 cookies instead of 2….
choosing to watch a movie instead of going for a walk….
choosing to have a second helping when one was plenty……
Again, lots of small choices that add up to the end result. Most of them seem insignificant by themselves, but when they are a part of a pattern of choice, they become the makings of good or evil in your life.
How many times every day are we faced with choices? ALL THE TIME! Most seem so minor they go unnoticed - we just make a choice and move on. But what if - what if the kinds of choices we have been making have not been the BEST choices we could have made? What if we start to take conscious notice of our choices, and check ourselves to see whether we’re choosing for better or worse, for good or BEST, for death or life?
What kinds of choices might we make in a day?
When to get up, what to wear, what to eat….
Whether to spend time with God…
What kind of things we watch or listen to or read….
To think and speak negatively to ourselves and others,
or to speak and think only blessing and hope….
To spend time playing with a child, or talking on the phone…
To encourage our husbands, or moan about our day….
To eat good food, or grab some handy junk…
To take time to exercise, or to be a couch potato….
To watch a sunset, or not….
Choices, choices….so many choices! Be GLAD that you have choices - the definition of true poverty is to no longer have choice. A truly poor person does not choose what to wear - they have only one garment. They don’t choose what to eat - they eat whatever they can find. They can’t choose where to live or what to do with their days. They have no choices.
But YOU have choices - you are BLESSED! What will you choose today? Choose the BEST! Make choices that bring life and health and blessing and joy! Every small choice adds up to big results! Don’t waste the blessing of choice.
But remember, when you make a bad choice, as everyone does from time to time, don’t let that make you feel like such a failure that you doom yourself to continuing your bad choices - instead repent of your choice, ask God to forgive and help you, forgive yourself, and then start fresh with a clean slate - treat the very next opportunity to choose as a new beginning! Choose life! You can reverse the results of many bad choice patterns (such as those that have led to being overweight) by simply making better choices in the future - moment by moment, one choice at a time.
“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you
that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
and so that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.”
Deut 30:19-20a