The Choices We Make

   From the moment we wake up in the morning until the moment we go sleep in the evening we are faced with choices.  Our life is full of them; we can’t escape.

   Each choice carries with it some responsibility and consequences.  Even the simple choices such as what time get up or what to have for breakfast affect our life.  If we choose to stay in bed an extra hour or so we may be late for work and lose our job.  By choosing to eat a healthy breakfast we can help our body to remain healthy.

   Life offers so many choices.  We can choose to be despondent, seeing the bad in everything or we can choose to seek out the good.  We can look at a rainstorm as keeping us from enjoying the picnic we had planned or as the water badly needed by the crops upon which we rely for food.  It’s a matter of perspective.

   We can opt to forgive those who hurt us or hold a grudge.  Forgiveness isn’t always easy but holding a grudge ultimately doesn’t affect the one who hurt us, it only affects us.  Once they have apologized they have done what was necessary.  If we chose to reject that apology we suffer the angst and torment of living with the hurt rather than releasing it.

   We can choose to worship earthly things; money, sex, position.  Or we can choose to worship God.  The choice is and always will be ours to make.  These are the choices that will determine where we spend eternity.

  When Joshua prepared the Israelites to cross the Jordan and take possession of the promised land he offered them two choices.  They could choose to worship the gods of the Amorites and other pagan gods or they could choose to worship the one true God; the God who had led them out of the slavery of Egypt.  We are faced with this choice each and every day.  Will we worship earthly gods or the one true God?  The choice Joshua made is the choice I will make; “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24: 15).

Lord, we face so many choices each day.

Help us to choose wisely.

Give us the courage to choose the right road.

The road that leads to You.

Amen