Making Better Choices

For Father’s Day my church played a video that focused on the choices men will make as they go through the cycle of life and get married, have kids, and watch their kids grow. It was especially touching to me because it made me think a lot about the choices I have made and how they impact my future, including my future wife and children.

Between that video and something that happened this morning, it dawned on me that even though you can receive forgiveness for your choices, the consequences of your choices could be permanent. And you can’t take those choices back. They follow you forever. Someone close to me told me this morning: “you can’t just start over. There’s no reset button.”

Sometimes, I wish there was. I definitely wished that this morning. Sometimes I wish that life was like a video game, where you can simply go back to a save point and do everything a little bit differently, because you remember how things ended up last time…and you want to avoid making the same mistakes twice.

But life doesn’t work that way. Our decisions are permanent and everlasting, and we get to live with them forever.

I pray that this makes me think harder about decisions I make before I make them. While I have no doubt that I am going to make mistakes in the future, I can certainly make things a lot easier and better for myself and for my loved ones if I make Godly decisions, rather than those decisions that come from raw emotions, such as anger, resentment, and jealousy.

The theme for the college ministry at my church this year is from the gospel of John : “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). I must learn to make less choices based on my own desires, and more choices that are bent upon God’s Will.

Easier said than done.