Choices

So do the choices we make really matter? Why not just have a little bit of fun? You're only young once, right? Hmm.... you've probably heard something like that before. The problem with that kind of logic is that choices really DO matter. Each decision you make is effecting the direction your life is going. (books, music, food, habits, friends.... just fill in the blank!) I got this article in my inbox today and I thought it was very thought provoking. It is from the Family Life Marriage Memos newsletter.

The article starts out with a story about two high school girls who were great friends. After their graduation, they took a trip with a group of friends. The trip ended up as one big party. One of the girls, Merry, was very uncomfortable and chose not to take part in all the "activities." The other entered right in. Years later, Merry is happily married and very involved in Christian ministery, but what about her friend?

For a number of years, Merry wondered what happened to her childhood friend, whom I will call Karen. After that week at Daytona Beach, Merry and Karen saw each other a few times and then drifted apart.

Then, about 15 years after they graduated from high school, Merry received a surprise phone call from Karen. As they caught up with what had happened over the years, Karen told a sad story of failed relationships, alcoholism, and drug abuse. She clearly was not happy with the direction her life had taken.

Merry remarked that she was a bit surprised, because during high school Karen did not appear to be on that path. “What happened?” she asked.

Karen replied, “Remember that week in Daytona Beach?” She didn’t realize this at the time—she just thought she was having fun—but the choices she made that week started her on a dangerous path. One choice led to another, and then to another, and the longer she stayed on that path, the harder it was to step off it.

In many ways, life is a series of choices. Some of these choices announce themselves with the blare of a marching band, like they did that week at Daytona for Merry and Karen. Others appear as a faint whisper in your ear. Yet at some point it seems that each choice comes down to a simple question: Are you going to follow the path of wisdom or the path of foolishness?

Sometimes we don’t fully realize the implications of our choices—how they will affect our future, and how they affect our relationships.

So what about the choices that you are making? You may not think that they are having a lasting effect on your life, but are they? Even the things that we put in our minds, what we hear, read or see, those things are always going to be there and effect us whether we realize it or not. Our prayer needs to be for help to be pure in our actions and choices and to always decide to do the things that honors Christ. We never know where our choices, good or bad, are going to lead.