Inspirational Thoughts #1
The Magic Of Choice

Have you ever made a big mistake? Sounds like a silly question I know. We all do things we regret; make unwise decisions; look back at choices made and shake our heads. The following words of inspiration may enable you to look back at your future choices with peace instead of pain .

I have a friend who came home one day, called me and said, "I met the woman I have been waiting for!" Apparently she felt the same way about him and they fell deeply into..... whatever it is you feel in a weeks time.

Everyone counseled them to take it easy, to go slow and really get to know each other and see how their various values would play out in real life situations and times of crisis, etc. Most of all they urged them to be certain of God's plans for their lives. But emotions are powerful things, and with feelings in control they decided that being in love would solve all their problems.

Three months from the time they met they took a drive together and eloped. They had another three months of euphoria and happiness until reality set in. A year later they were divorced. Today both their lives are broken and troubled, largely because they neither one got over that tragedy and continued to make worse choices to try and soothe the pain.

I live on a small farm where my dear husband Doug helps me raise dairy goats and guinea fowl (along with a few cats and dogs). I love my animals and usually care for them diligently, but sometimes I put things off. A few months back I noticed one of my guinea hens acting unwell. I was busy and kept thinking any day I would catch her (a bit of a challenge) and doctor her. A week and a half later, she was dead.

My sweet nephew spent several nights in a row up till 3 or 4 am. for a variety of reasons. One of those afternoons he came home, parked his SUV in the driveway of the family home and went in to shower and eat supper. After eating he went out on the back deck to use his cell phone and looked out toward the front side of the house to see his SUV dead center in the middle of his Mom's beautiful and decorative fountain pond.

At first he could not wrap his mind around what he was seeing. Finally he realized he had forgotten to put the vehicle in gear and it had coasted down the sloped yard and into the pond. On it's way it wreaked havoc on both vehicle and fountain pond, until it stopped with a crash at the pond's rock wall.

What do these stories have in common? Perhaps you have already gotten the point. Each story involved choices made and the consequences that came as a result. In each situation you can also visualize an alternate scenario where different choices were made and the story's ending would have been totally different. The marriage could have survived, the bird's illness treated and it recovered, the SUV and pond undamaged.

God has given us the miraculous gift of choice or free will. It is a gift both magnificent and terrible in it's consequences. Most of the evils in this world are a result of that gift, as are the most phenomenal and soul-stirring things of beauty.

Choice is perhaps the most powerful of all human abilities. The tragedy we read about in the Sunday paper,  the homeless child who was rescued and adopted, the jailed father and broken family, missions in the middle of gang infested cities, wars and rumors of wars, all are results of choices people have made.

The Offer of Life or Death

Deuteronomy 30:11-19
"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.
It is not up in heaven.....
Nor is it beyond the sea.....
No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws;
then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you.....
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,
I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed....
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 that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life....."

It's really simple, life is made up of opportunities to choose.

And what we choose can lead to life or death.

Even our smallest choices ALL lead somewhere and can be more significant than we imagined. (Like how much sleep we get.)

Galations 6:7 says "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." I suspect the "do not be deceived" part here implies that we easily delude ourselves into thinking that little choices we make do not really matter. We rationalize decisions to make them acceptable to our minds and deceive ourselves into thinking there will be no consequences.
"Maybe that movie took God's name in vain a few times, but the message was worth it."
"My boyfriend has a good heart and I can get him to stop drinking."
"God will understand if I don't sit down with my Bible very often. I am so busy doing good works."
"So I lost my temper, they had no right to say what they did."

You get the idea. We will all reap what we sow!! Every single choice we make will have a resulting consequence for good or for evil.
Whether it is about deciding to eat healthy meals or what job to work at or if you will spend time with your wife and kids, each has a consequence.

May these inspirational thoughts encourage you to take advantage of the power God has given you to choose right and sow wisely!