CHOICES

CHOICES

I have been thinking about the choices we make in our life every day. We usually think of choices as they relate to good and bad. I am thinking about the idea that most of the time our choices are just whether we choose the good or the better thing.. Those are the types we most have to be careful about because neither thing is bad. The choices have to be evaluated more closely.
Recently I was changing my sheets and noticed that my mattress pad was very worn and needed to be replaced. I went to the store and had two choices. One was $39.00 and the other was $50.00. I looked at them both and they looked very similar in every way so I took the cheaper one. You know that $50.00 sounds so much more than $39.00. When I put it on the bed, I noticed that it had a funny feel to it but I pretty much ignored it. That night we got into bed and I rolled over to kiss my husband good night and heard this crinkle, crinkle. What was that? We soon realized it was the new mattress pad. My husband assured me that we would get used to it. Well a month later it was still driving me nuts as every time I moved in the bed - I heard the crinkle, crinkle. I finally just bit the bullet and went back to the store and bought the $50.00 one which of course now actually was more like $90.00 since I threw away the $39.00 one. The new one is so wonderful. What I failed to notice in the fine print was that the cheaper one was more of a paper product instead of a cloth product.
Now I know we can’t always buy the most expensive and frankly the most expensive is not always the best choice. If I had looked at it more carefully then I could have known I was buying paper and made the decision to pay the extra $10.00 or just wait until I could afford the extra if I didn’t have it at the time.
I remember being so proud of myself on that first day thinking I had been frugal - but the result was way more expensive. You can see how those choices can really impact our life and my budget in this case as I obviously didn’t choose the “better” thing.
I of course always want to make a spiritual application. An example might be a decision about the monthly ladies meeting. Maybe you are tired and think you could just stay home and have some family bonding time instead of going to the ladies meeting. Well family bonding time is a good thing for sure, so you see your choice is good - or better. We do lie to ourselves sometimes - do you really want to spend quality time with your family - or is it more like quality time with your recliner and the TV. I am not making a judgment here on anyone. I just know how my mind works. If you choose to stay home with the family the Lord isn’t going to rain down hail and brimstone on you. The thing that happens is that you will probably miss a blessing that would have rejuvenated you spiritually and better prepared you for the challenges of the rest of the week.
I faced one of these choices just recently. We have been working on updating our house for literally months. We were almost done but our activities kept getting in the way. This time it was the kitchen. We had to texture and paint and believe me that was a huge mess. We also put in our new back splash ourselves. Well to be honest - my husband put in the back splash. I am the willing helper. Anyway, my husband signed up for the Amen Conference. It would take him away from home from Friday afternoon until Saturday night. I wanted him to go - but - I started thinking - well he had been to several of those already. He had a hard week at work and that would make the trip hard on him. If he stayed home we could finish the kitchen. He even began to wonder if he should cancel. Well - he just felt that he needed to go so off he went. It was another one of those good or better choices.
Now he was gone and I decided to put the primer on the walls of the kitchen and also clean off the overspray from the texture that was on the crown molding. This might not seem like a big deal to most of you but for me - it was a BIG deal. I looked at the job and prayed and asked God to help me. I had never tackled anything like that on my own. It looked impossible. A few times I began to think it WAS impossible for me and I kept having doubts about my skill. I kept praying and asking God to not let me quit and I got it all done. I was so amazed at myself and so excited that God had led me through each and every hour encouraging me to keep going.
Now here is the thing. If Arliss had stayed home- it wouldn’t have been a bad thing - in fact sometimes we just can’t go to everything - but - I would have missed the wonderful blessing of God showing me that I could do something that seemed impossible. I would never have even considered it if Arliss was home. He would too have missed the blessings of the men’s retreat.
Now the question is how do we know which is the good or the better choice. Sometimes it is not as cut and dried as my examples. I think the best thing to do is go to scripture. After all we all know that God has the answer to everything if we will just look. Someone told me once that we should visualize God in heaven looking down on us and having a stack of gifts he wants to give us. We however have the freedom to make our own choices and sometimes those choices keep God from giving us the gifts. I certainly don’t want to miss out on any gift that God has for me.
There are so many verses that could help but here are a couple of verse that I especially like for this situation.
Matthew 5:16 - Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.
If we go to the Lord and ask him for wisdom to know which choice will cause others to glorify Him - He will reveal it to us. Wow! I love that. Why do we always make things so hard when God has the answer if we just ask?
It would be nice to think that we will go forth and always choose better over good, but we won’t because we are just sinners saved by grace. It is so wonderful though that God keeps on loving us and guiding us and we can turn and make the better choice the next time and learn from our mistakes. Don’t forget I John 1:9- the verse about forgiveness- just in case confession is needed. I seem to need that often.
Well learn from my mistakes and I hope you will give those good or better choices a little more thought each day. God will then be able to shower those blessings upon you that he so desires to give each one of us.