Choices?

Like everyone else we all know, life is busy.
There are an infinite selection of choices to make in a person's life, on a daily basis, and bit by bit, it will define your life.

My oldest son was telling me that in his job for his first year away from the university life at Florida State, there was just so much work to do, but someone keyed him in on the fact that when overwhelmed with the work, the work that he does shows who he is and what his interests are.
I had never given that any thought until that conversation, but I have come to realize that that is a nugget of wisdom for anybody.
Wow, I better lay off of the Bejeweled on Facebook.

But the people we meet, people we never know, people who make headlines, all make choices from an infinite variety of decisions on a daily basis. Did you know that an average person makes hundreds of minor decisions every day, from what time one gets out of bed to whether or not to brush one's teeth, on and on. A person who makes decisions that lands him in jail has his electives whittled down to something like 11. (A little detail recalled from my husband's days working with prison ministries.) Often when an inmate is released from incarceration, his decision making abilities is rusty.

My daily life seems full of things that have to be done, without a lot of decisions to be made on a particular day, but they have all come about from the accumulations of years of choices. Actions taken while young enough to think they didn't matter cast shadows or lighten dark corners years later.
One of my best decisions was to talk to that new boy who came into my Advanced Algebra class in tenth grade. And a choice we took together was to walk through life trying to follow the way of the cross. Years later, I wouldn't have it any other way. Oh, there are times when life has been frustrating, and trying to do the right thing was not doing the easy thing, but after living 51 years and seeing people who reject Christianity, no thanks. "As for me and my household, we will serve Yaweh."
Following G-d has made the tough times easier to bear, and reminds us to be thankful in the better times. He reminds us to do what is right, and not only that which works out for our own interest. He reminds us to be forgiving of one another, but to strive to do our best so that we don't always have to be asking to be forgiven, but know that He is willing when our hearts are right.

So many fight to release us as a people from the presence of G-d in our lives, but wonder why we see the beating of children by other children as seen on a school bus video, or that cell phone video from South Chicago. We choose to make morality an elective but fail to see the connection when young people especially behave violently in a normal days interaction. Because so many work on this agenda, no one thinks they have any blame when the repercussions fall.
John Adams told the military of his day, "We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
As we abandon religion and morality, our infrastructure crumbles. Keep up the good work, my fellow parents who strive to teach your children to walk in truth, in obedience, in morality. Our future depends on it.