Consequences of our choices!!

I had a very disturbing week last week surrounding around this issue of “choices”. Free will has been given to each us, meaning we have the right and the ability to choose what we do in this life. This free will/our ability to choose has its consequences. Some choices don’t have do over’s. Some choices are lasting here on earth and after this life. The question becomes can we really continue this distructive pattern of decision making? I submit we can't and that we must stop where we are and begin to re-evaluate how we are arriving at our ultimate outcomes.

Let’s look at some choices:

• I have a friend whose son is not in a gang and had never been arrested. One evening after he and his mother said their goodnights and went to bed a friend came over and knocked on his window asking, “Hey man there’s a party do you want to go?” Ahh here come the choices – do you stay in bed where it’s safe and is encased with the already loving good nights from your parent or do you sneak out and go to the party? Next choice, things have been crazy people getting shot so you have this gun to take for protection just in case. Choice – do you take this
gun or leave it? Actually the first choice way before this is – you are enticed by owning a gun, an illegal gun- do you obtain this illegal fire arm? You all can surmise how this true story ended. A fight ensued, a life was lost, and a nineteen year old child in jail charged with first degree murder.

A young woman is involved with a man, outside of wedlock, things are hot and heavy, bumping and grinding is going on, clothes are coming off. Choice – do you go through with this or do you stop it? Do you go ahead and have unprotected sex or do you insist that protection be used? Choice made – you are going to go through with it with no protection and no marriage vows.

Potential outcomes: baby out of wedlock and no commitment from the partner to help shoulder the burden or expense of raising a child, a sexually transmitted disease (curable), or herpes (not curable but they say livable) or the ultimate AIDS or ALL OF THE ABOVE.

• A married man is attracted to a woman who is not his wife. She flits her eyes at him, tells him how good looking he is and she even tells him, “If I was your wife I would surely treat you real good.” Choice: does he pursue it or does he beat his flesh into submission? Choice: He pursues it. Outcomes: a marriage is destroyed and a family broken apart, disillusioned children, friends, and family and potentially another child born to a family that is not yours.

Friends are bored and mischief is afoot. They encourage you to go along with doing some things that will eliminate the boredom. These “something’s” could be robbing a store, robbing a person, pulling a vicious prank on someone, skipping school, or playing around with a hand gun. This list could be endless. Choices: Do you go along to get along or do you make an excuse and remove myself from this situation?

Choice: you don’t want to be perceived as a punk, or not as cool as the others, bottom line you want to feel accepted so you participate. Maybe your participation is in the simplest form and various tragedies take place. Outcome: at the end of the day you are just as culpable as the ones who performed the greater tasks.

 A parent lives unholy before their children, but every time the church door is open they are dragging their child(ren) to church. They are raising their hands in praise, shouting in the center aisle, and walking around saying, “I’m blessed.” Unholy is a revolving door of men or women through their home, having sleep overs (you know what I’m talking about), doing various drugs, cussing, failing to provide for their family, choosing their mates over their children, and failing to live as a positive example, a role model to their children. All of the above are choices that were made. Outcomes: children have no respect for the church, and don’t know anything for real about Jesus, teen pregnancies, children on drugs, children joining gangs, children showing no respect for their parents, children dropping out of school, and children making bad choices about life long relationships or worse are incapable of establishing and maintaining lifelong relationships.

I could give you a ton of choices for this list – make your own and look at the choices that you’ve made and anaylze your outcomes. Are we simply INSANE? The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and yet expect different outcomes.

If different choices had been made what would the potential outcomes look like?

• Child stayed home no murder charges.

• Abstinence practiced no diseases whosoever. B. Protection used potentially no transmittal of sexually transmitted disease. (Just a side note the abstinence guaranteed it!)

• Married man remains faithful to his wife. Whatever is lacking in his marriage he works to repair and restore what attracted him to her in the first place and the family is intact.
• Decided you were not going to follow your friends. Realized the importance of developing better friends, and stayed out of trouble. Maybe you became unpopular but your life is on track prepared for greater opportunities. 

• Parents live holy before their children and are truly their child’s role model. Children embrace Jesus and even if they stray they have a sound foundation to pull back onto and at the end of the day move into the realm of making sound choices. Some may never stray and endeavor to honor the life that has been lived before them. They find great peace, great joy, and great reward by imitating the life their parents presented before them.

This article is not meant to condemn it is meant to help us make better choices and to learn from the unhealthy ones. Yes we have been given free will so let’s use wisdom, the scriptures of the bible to guide our choices, prayer for direction, and praise and worship to close the deal. It is my absolute prayer that today along with me you will endeavor to make choices that edify your family, your community, your work place, and your church family.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the article “Today’s A New Day”