Choices

What do you think about choices? Do you like them? Loathe them? Are you indifferent to them? Are you aware of the millions of choices that you make everyday? We (the royal 'we' as in the whole of the human race) are the most advanced species that God made. We were the pinnacle of his creativity. How do we use this most unique gift that he gave us - the ability to make choices?

When the word choice is mentioned I usually quite quickly think back to the choice that my husband and I made when we decided to try and make a family. That was the choice that I would become a full-time mum. It was not an easy choice to make, as I have mentioned before, we felt the only way we could fulfill the consequences of this choice was to move North 200 miles so that we could reduce our mortgage. Where ever we have choice we also have consequences. We are shown all through the Bible examples of choices and consequences. From small choices, for example in the story in the New Testament of Mary and Martha where Mary makes her choice to listen while Martha makes her choice to serve with her hands. At the other extreme are choices like when the mother of Moses decides to ensure her son lives by placing him in a basket in the reeds to be found (hopefully) by the daughter of Pharaoh.

I have to confess that I get very agitated and upset by people trying to insist that they do not have a choice over stuff. I think there is very little we don't have a choice about. We can't always choose whether we are going to become ill or die (though there are choices that we can make that can make these a consequence, eg. smoking, high risk sports activities, etc). Even when faced with illness or dying we do still have a choice of how we are going to handle it. It was very difficult watching my sister face up to a life with Multiple Sclerosis. I would say it took her about 6 years to come to terms with it and to take hold of the choices that she still had over her life. Once she decided to choose 'life in all it's fullness' not only did her mental health improve but she physically improved to which meant more choices opened up before her. Big choices like this being made by people undergoing such adversity is probably one of the reasons I get so agitated and upset by the folks denying their choices under little adversity.

When someone says to me - "I would love to be a stay at home mum but we just can't afford it". I am sure what they are actually saying is "I would love to be a stay at home mum but have decided that faced with the choice of reducing the material content of my present life or staying at home, I am going to choose to stay at work". I am not trying to belittle the decision that thousands of people make, however I do want people to admit to the fact that they are making a choice. If we don't admit to ourselves that we are making choices then we are denying the fact that we are living by the consequences of the choices that we make - that is living a lie (in my opinion).

I don't think I stand on my soap box too often, and hope that you will forgive me for doing so today on this topic. I am presently trying to come to terms with making a huge decision over my nieces life, there are not a lot of choices available to me and my family, however there are lots of consequences that will not just affect me and my immediate family but also will affect my extended family and many friends as well.

So whether your choices today are easy or hard, take delight in this gift that our father God has given to us, and make your choices wisely and be prepared and willing to honestly face the consequences that your choices will bring.