Making Choices

All of our choices have consequences, good or bad.

Recently we had some painting done at our house. We found a wonderful painter. He had time to start right away. All we needed was to give him the paint colors. Did you know that Sherwin-Williams offers over 1700 paint colors? And perhaps a hundred of them are whites? My, my, my! I am so not good at colors.

Choices. We make dozens, maybe hundreds, of choices every day. We make choices about our daily routine, about our health, about being kind or rude, about hurrying or taking our time, about spending or not spending money, about what we will eat or wear or say to others – you see what I mean? Yet making choices is not always as easy as one might imagine.

Choice is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. He created us with the ability to make our own. It is also called free will. Choosing means to select or pick out something we believe is the best or most appropriate of two or more alternatives. We have liberty to make good choices or bad choices. This is well illustrated by the experiences of Adam and Eve in the Garden. There was only one thing God told them not to do (“…but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil…Gen. 2:17). They had a choice. They chose unwisely! That decision affected all of mankind.

I guess God could have made us like puppets – doing only that which He wanted us to or made us do. (Sometimes I rather wish He would do that and save me the stress that comes with making a difficult choice.) We would have only resented being coerced. We would have seen Him more as a cruel dictator than as a loving Father. Instead, we have the marvelous opportunity in the freedom to choose to believe, trust, love and worship Him.

There is power in our ability to choose. Yes, God does have a plan for our life, a purpose for our being. It is essential that we accept or reject, obey or disobey of our own volition. Our character, our intentions, our motivations and our inspirations are revealed by the decisions we make. Life doesn’t “just happen”. Our life is a result of the choices we have been making. Even in the most difficult of circumstances, we can choose how we respond. We can choose our thoughts. We can choose our attitudes. We can choose to pray. We can choose to forgive.

As we see in the story of Adam and Eve, all of our choices, good or bad, have consequences,

good or bad. If we have a habit of wrong decisions, we cannot necessarily change what has

happened. However, we can begin today to learn to make better choices to change what will

happen in the future.

I love being able to make my own choices. And being able to choose to change my mind! I made paint color choices – seriously did not like them – had the painters change the colors. I suffered much angst. I may have even whined a little. But we got through it. My house looks beautiful and I am happy with the final results.

God loves us so much! Are you struggling with choices you have made or have to make? Call out to Him. Seek help from wise counselors. Don’t let fear of the “what ifs” cause you to miss out on the blessings awaiting. Send us a message. We are here for you.