Choices
“CHOOSE you this day, whom you will serve.” Joshua 24:15
Every single day, our lives are made up of choices. Some are major and some are minor. And at the end of our lives, we are the sum of our choices. We can choose what to eat… how much to sleep… how much time we spend texting or on our ipads and computers… who we spend time with… how much time we spend at church, reading our Bible, praying… how far we will let our boyfriends “go”… what words will come out of our mouths… and on and on and on.
We have free will. We are free to choose. Each day is composed of 1440 minutes. Everyone is given the same allotted time in a day. What you do with that time is up to you! Because everything we do in those 1440 minutes is a choice. And every choice has a consequence, good or bad. Sometimes, those consequences never go away!
How we make our decisions is often based on the motive behind it. It says in Proverbs 16:2 that “All a person’s ways seem pure to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord.” We need to examine our motives! Our choices can be made out of love for money (greed), or out of fear, (or out of fear of getting caught!) or out of desire for acceptance. They also can be made out of wanting to be obedient to Christ, or out of the desire to please. Decisions might be made because of the image we are trying to maintain. There are many other motives that could drive our choices as well. We would be wise to examine our motives.
Most of our decisions/choices will either be one of priority or morality. Moral decisions are more black and white. Our “moral compass” lets us know whether something is right or wrong. But sometimes we make decisions because of priorities. There might be two “right” choices, but the higher priority wins out.
I will be the first to admit that making the right choice is often hard to do! But it helps to remember that every choice is tied to a consequence, and I will be the one living with that consequence – good or bad. Let’s make the CHOICE today to examine our motives and determine our priorities. If our motives are pure and our priorities are right, it leads us to wise choices.