Free to Choose

 (day 19 of my 31 day blog series: Live Free.  )  

We’re in the final stretch of our 31 day series together. Are you happy yet? 🙂 I hope you’ve enjoyed thinking about all the freedoms we have in life. As a freedom lover, I’m loving it. Today I almost pulled out my original brainstorming “free” list because I couldn’t think of what to write about today, and then I remembered this one.

Free to Choose.

Another favorite of mine.

A topic I talk about often with my teenage daughter. Choices. The gift of being able to choose. The consequences of our daily choices. What happens when we don’t choose. The choices of others and how they affect us.

Several years I gave a talk to teenage boys and girls in a local youth jail called The Gift of Choice. I shared my poor choices as a teenager and twenty-something, and then I shared what happened when I started changing my choices. It was overwhelmingly rewarding when I finished my message that 15 kids gave their lives to Jesus.

I love being able to choose. Well, I love when I make good ones and I hate when I choose the wrong thing.

Being able to choose is a gift from God. We have freewill. We are not robots. We have the ability to think for ourselves. I can’t imagine not having this freedom and yet I know as I type this there are people who are not able to choose. They are trapped in slavery or in an abusive relationship. Oh how I hate that thought. I wish I could rescue them out of that place of no choice and into a place of freedom and choice.

Do you ever thank God for the gift of choice?

I know I often get overwhelmed by choice. We have so many choices, especially here in America. One look inside our grocery stores will tell you we have oodles of choices. Too many choices for someone like me who is frugal and yet wants to make wise and healthy choices. Goodness, save me from the shelve, better yet, save me from myself.

Think about all the choices you have in a day.

What will you eat and drink?

Will you work, rest, exercise, or play?

What will you wear? Will you shower?

What will choose to think about?

How will you treat people?

Will you pray?

Will you listen to music, watch TV, read a book, or choose silence?

What will you say when you see yourself in your mirror?

Will you be thankful or complain?

Will you look for reasons to enjoy today?

Will you focus on the regrets of yesterday?

Will you fret about tomorrow?

 

Okay you get the idea. We are free to choose. Yay! That’s a reason to celebrate, choose to live your best life today. And if that’s not enough for you, here’s another thing to remember about choice.

Jesus chose YOU.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you

so that you might go and bear fruit—

fruit that will last . . .”

John 15:16

Q4U:  What will you choose to do with this day? Please share in the comments here on my blog OR stop by my Facebook page.

(For previous posts from this series, click here: 31 day blog series: Live Free.  )