Choices

Our day begins with the choice of getting out of bed or staying in bed to hide from the world. The choices are just beginning for the day, milk or OJ for breakfast, gray or black clothes today, drive to work or ride the bus, and on and on and on.

It's the choice we make each day, each moment that guide how the rest of the day may go. You could choose to take a different route to work and you find that if you had visited the same old streets you do day in and day out, there was an accident at the precise time you would have been there. A choice you make could save your life. A choice you make could also add minutes to your commute. Reactions are mostly emotional response, and then the logic comes in. The choice.

I made a choice to drive into a car wash the other day. I was inside when I noticed the doors to get out were not functioning. One was propped open with a zip tie and the other was not moving out of my way as I was moving out. I had choices to make and I made them. My car suffered. The door that I slowly and gingerly pushed open with my bumper, scratched my new car from bumper to bumper on one side.

BUMPER TO BUMPER scratches like this 

 I was reminded all evening by my husband why my choices in the situation were the wrong ones and what he would have done differently. I was quick to inform him that I made the choices I needed to make at the moment to get me out of a situation and though they may not have been what *he* would have done, they were what I *did* and it was the past.

TobyMac puts it eloquently in the song Me Without You "I'd be packing my bags, when I need to stay, I'd be chasing every breeze that blows my way..."

Without God, my choices would be much different. It's not easy to make choices, but it's a guidance that I have from Christ's sacrifice. I have the choice to live in a way that is pleasing to God or to not. I walk each day making the choice to please God. I choose to do the right thing, and I also choose to walk away from things that I can see as toxic in my life. I have the choice to follow up conflict with making it right with resolution, even though that's the harder thing to do. It's much easier to complain about what I was put through and talk poorly about the person that I was in conflict with. The choice often times is between doing something the "easy" way or doing it the "right" way. This is something I am really grasping onto lately. Anyone that knew me growing up, knows I had my own hard headed way of doing things. I bent the rules to allow for all situations to work my way.  I had a lot of learning to do, but I've learned no matter what, even when following the rules, there's usually a way I would prefer to do something and it's not the way I was told to do it. I have a choice, follow the rules, or do it the way *I* want to do it. As I've learned the rights and wrongs of living life, I am faced with helping my kids to make choices too. Make the choice to clean up your mess or choose to sit in your bed for a time out and then clean up the mess for example. As much as it seems just cleaning the mess would be the choice option, sometimes it's not so clear to my kids! Choices are hard. They come with real consequences sometimes and you have to ask yourself "Is the choice I make, something I can live with?" If it is, it's an easy choice, but what happens when the answer is not so clear? The choice is tougher, sometimes the answer is hazy, you have two raw options or better, you have two good options. Always choose the right way. It's easier said than done, but I have truly learned, if you do what you are supposed to do, it's a lot easier to live with the aftermath. Choose with your head, allow logic to speak above emotions. There again easier said than done, for those of us (Us as in MYSELF 100% included!!) who are emotional and impulsive. Slow down, listen to God, He will guide you.