Daily choices are not thought about much, what to wear today, what to have for breakfast, which route to take for errands, which store to buy groceries, and the list goes on. Then there are choices that affect us materially, which house to purchase or apartment to rent, which car to buy, which insurance policy is best, where to go on vacation, and that list goes on and on. Then we have choices that affect our feelings and the direction our life goes, who to date, who to marry, whether to have children, which job to take, which church to join, and this list goes on and on and on.
Some people become paralyzed with fear when it comes to making major decisions, others can make them quickly. We made a decision on a house to purchase in just over a week, because that is all the time we had! But, then, the next house, we took years to decide which house to purchase, because we had the time. So, decisions are based on many factors. Today we have people making choices that are questionable, and in some cases dangerous. To have that moment of 'fame', many are doing extreme 'selfies'; and in some cases they actually are losing their lives in pursuit of the most daring photo. Others are making the choice to allow children to have access to phones and computers in their rooms because the children on television shows have access to phones and computers in their rooms...then it turns frightening when their child friends a predator. Others make choices to take items from stores without paying for them, with the thought process that the owners of the stores are rich and can afford to provide this to me for free. Others make choices to walk away from their family to pursue more enjoyable adventures, then are confused when their adult children are distant. Still others make the conscience decision to incite people to violence, and feign innocence when people commit violence against political foes. We make decisions daily. How do we know if the decision we are making is a correct decision? A moral decision? A righteous decision? The first step in that is to accept that there is evil, and there is good. Many in our society claim there is no evil, just people who believe differently. Evil comes in many forms, and unfortunately sometimes it comes in beliefs or customs. Family abuse is evil, and in some family's it has become 'custom'; waiting on the one that will break that chain and walk away creating righteous family decisions. Evil comes in the form of leaders of countries that take from the citizens for their own power or luxury. Evil comes in the form of beliefs that teach extreme beliefs from scriptural lessons involving misunderstood symbolism. Evil comes in the form of addictions and those that feed addictions. Evil comes in the form of criminality against people and society, hurt and despair, fear and defeat, even unto death in extreme cases. Evil comes from media who intentionally mislead society to see just how far they can go with their own power, to normalize society ills in the form of entertainment. Evil exists, and that has to be admitted. If one cannot admit there is good and evil, then making choices becomes difficult. What are good choices? Walking away from those who attempt to destroy your life through addictions, through media, through mistrust, through dishonesty, through so many other dishonorable circumstances. Little by little we allow ourselves to become victims, and then wake up one morning with a life going in the wrong direction. Sometimes the choices are good choices, but not the best choices. A church leader once made the statement that having children involved in extra curricular activities that take up each week night, and over-whelming the weekend to the extent that the family no longer has meals together and school work suffers, or children are stressed, may be a good choices...individually. However, placing them all together becomes a bad choice. When the family has no time together, or the child is stressed from over scheduling; a good choice becomes a bad choice. Do we have courage to make the good choices? Do we have the courage to break away and make the choices that are good for one's family? Evaluate choices, make a plan to make better choices to lead to a happier life. In some cases, it might be turn off the TV; drop an activity; get up earlier; go to bed earlier; read more. Or, it might be to correct past choices; giving up an addiction (food, candy, tobacco, media, work, busy-ness). Make it one step at a time.
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Carolyn Bendall"After years of teaching people how to develop their 'outside' image; we realized the 'inner image' need just as much work. Let's take this journey together!" Archives
August 2022
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