CHOICES!

Choices

 

By the time you notice this page, you may be already screaming through your day.

Pressure. The incessant telephone. Unsolvable issues. Perhaps an argument or two. Today, as His follower, you and I are faced with choices on how we will respond to the pounding pace and pressure. The demand for decisions. And so I will choose:

I CHOOSE LOVE…

No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. Often times incidents occur in our lives that drive wedges between relationships. However we should not allow hatred and bitterness to control us. We do not have to love the abuse. We were not made to be abused in any fashion whether physically, mentally or verbally. But we should choose to love God and what God loves.

Let all your things be done with charity.  1 Cor 16:14

I CHOOSE JOY…

I will invite God to be the God of my circumstances. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical… the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:  1 Peter 1:8

I CHOOSE PEACE…

I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live.

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.  Col 3:12-14

I CHOOSE PATIENCE…

I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Instead of cursing the one who cuts in front of me, I’ll invite him to do so. Rather than complain that the wait in line is too long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clenching my fist at every day life, I will face it with joy and courage.

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.  Eccl 7:8-9

I CHOOSE KINDNESS…

I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God treated me.

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.  Eph 4:32

I CHOOSE GENTLENESS…

Nothing is won by force; I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice, may it only be in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it only be of myself.

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.  Titus 3:1-2

I CHOOSE SELF-CONTROL…

I am a spiritual being. After this body is dead, my spirit will soar. I refuse to let what people in this world do to me rule my eternal soul. I will be drunk only by joy. I will be impassioned only by my faith. I will be influenced only by God’s Word. I choose self-control.

But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;  Titus 1:8