Today I have a guest blogger, my wife Lenora! I hope you enjoy her very profound article on the importance of making the right choices.
People make choices every day. We choose what time we need to get up in the morning. We choose what clothes we are going to wear each day. We make choices about what food to eat, what TV shows to watch, what TV shows and video games to let our children watch and play and the list goes on and on. Life is about choices. We can choose to do good and do the “right thing” or we can choose to do what we want to do which may not always be the right choice. But regardless of whether we choose to do good or to do the “right thing” it is up to us to make the choice. God gave us free will and an individual mind to make everyday choices because God is not a dictator; He is a gentleman. He never forces Himself on us but He is always there for us if we need Him – all we have to do is ask.
We need to know that the choices we make also affects others around us. We are commanded to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ (Matthew 22:35–40) so when we make choices we should be aware of the consequences and consider how our choices affect others. If someone has been drinking too much and then makes the choice to drive their car that choice affects all the other people who are driving on the highway. If they get in a wreck and injure or kill someone that is because of the choice they made to drink and drive. It is not God’s fault that person chose to drink and drive. It’s not God’s fault for any of the bad choices we make. Bad things happen to good Christian people all the time and it is because of the choices we make or choices other people make. All of our choices affect someone at one time or another. My brother-in-law was killed riding his motorcycle home from work. The person in the car in front of him was texting and not paying attention to the cars in front of her. When she realized the cars in front of her had stopped, she slammed on her brakes which caused my brother-in-law to lock up his motorcycle and lose control of it. He was just riding along doing something that he loved to do trying to make it home but because of the choice of the driver in front of him he never made it home that day. She made a bad choice and because of her choice my sister is now left without a husband and soul mate. My sister blamed God for the loss of her husband at first. She now realizes after I explained about choices to her, that it wasn’t God’s fault but the fault of a choice made by another person. Does it hurt any less? No. Is she still grieving? Yes.
We have all blamed God for one thing or another at some point in our lives. But it is not God’s fault for the choices we make. School shootings, the tragedy of 9/11, other acts of terrorism, drunk driving deaths, drug overdoses, etc., are all a result of choices people have made. God cannot be expected to intervene every time someone makes a bad choice. Let’s face fact: most of the time God doesn’t intervene because He is not asked to intervene. We think we don’t need His help so instead of praying and asking God to direct our path, we just do whatever we think is right or whatever we want to do. If we would stop blaming God for our choices and start asking him to direct our path maybe we would start making right choices and right decisions. Isaiah 48:17 says “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go”. If we know God will direct us in the way we should go, then why are we not asking him to do so? If we believe what the word of God says, we should be asking God to direct us in all our ways. After all, we are here for His glory – not ours.
I just want everyone to realize how our choices affect the lives of so many other people. This includes but is not limited to our actions as well as the words that come out of our mouths. When it comes to the words we speak, we also have a choice whether to speak good edifying words or evil hurtful words. We can choose with our words to either build people up or knock them down. Ephesians 4:29 says “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” So be careful what you say to others and about others and make sure your words will build that person or their situation up and not knock them down. My mother always told me when I was growing up “if you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all”. That is good advice. We should think about what we are going to say before we say it. Ask yourself “Is what I am about to say or do going to glorify God?”. If not, then why bother. After all that is why we are here: to glorify God and to bring people to Jesus.
So before you make that choice or before you speak those words, remember to think and pray about it first. Let’s see if we as Christians can make a difference when it comes to the choices we make.
This article is an excerpt from the book Lenora and I wrote together called How To Avoid A Lifetime of Pain. Lenora and I have had some challenges in our life and we have much life experience to share.
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