Choices are Important

Chuckle: “Did you ever eat a puffed rice cake? It’s like eating the lid off a Styrofoam minnow bucket” –Lou Brown

Quote: "You can judge a man pretty well by whether -- if given a choice -- he would ask for a lighter burden or a stronger back." --Unknown source

CHOICES MATTER

" . . . choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . . But as for me and my household, we will (choose to) serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15 NIV).

Each day, we are faced with a series of choices that determine the course of our lives and often the lives of others. Joshua made his choice to serve the Lord. This is a basic choice each of us must make. However, every day we make hundreds of lesser choices that not only impact our lives but the lives of those around us. An eternal perspective on life's choices is to know how to choose wisely.

Are your choices based on selfish motives? "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Philippians 2:3-4 NIV). Who do you think about when it comes to making choices/decisions? Is it "what's in it for me?" "Will this benefit me?" "How will this affect me?" Are you always looking out for old number one? The above passage tells us that the interests of others should be more important to us than our own when we make choices.

Are your choices based on material things? "Let your character be free from the love of money. . ." (Hebrews 13:5 NIV). "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many griefs" (I Timothy 6:10 NIV). This passage is often misinterpreted. It is not money or possessions that are the problem -- it is our infatuation with them. It is our all-consuming preoccupation with acquiring money and possessions that grieves our Lord. They can become the most important and treasured things in life to us. God's Word encourages hard work and good management. Having possessions, or not, is not the issue; it's our attitudes toward them, and how we use them.

Are your choices based on spiritual compromise? "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted (or stained) by the world" (James 1:27 NIV). As we make choices in life, they should be from a different motivation. You've probably seen the letters WWJD (what would Jesus do). These letters remind us to make decisions from an eternal spiritual perspective, no matter how great or small these decisions might be. To make choices that are pleasing to our Lord and benefit others should be our goal.

Love, Jerry & Dotse