Choices

Today’s topic: choices.  I can choose to work my hardest at my job, or I can choose to do a half-baked job.  I can choose to honor and cherish my wife or I can choose just to focus on my needs and wants. 

Now the choices we face every day are not always this black and white. My stepfather Gordon Sauer was the first person in my life to point this out to me.  (At least point it out to the point where it stuck in my mind.)  In the past and to some degree in the present I have been a person who blames other people or events when things are not going the way that I would like.  I can choose to be happy today (even if it does not always turn out that way.) The mindset that I chose to go into an event with is entirely up to me.

For example, I tend to be a person who is very self-critical.  I will make a decision and then after the fact I will flagellate myself for doing it.  I can make a choice to be conscious and to change that behavior pattern.  Another example, instead of judging a person or making fun of them for something I can stop and try to place myself in their shoes.  I find that when I do this, I am a lot less likely to judge them.  I feel humbled at that point.

I can choose to exercise on any given day and eat foods that are good for me, or I can choose to skip exercising and eat junk.  More then anything right now I am working on letting go.  I have 35 years of ruminating on things so this is going to be a life long process.  Instead of counting every calorie and weighing myself daily, I can try my best to eat healthy and exercise, not count calories and weigh myself at most twice a week. 

When we choose to own things and work on them, we are holding ourselves accountable.  Accountable to God, to our spouses and family, but also holding myself accountable to me.  I can look in the mirror and say I did what I said I was going to do, and that sense of being honest and accountable feels good.  To do what you say, words mean nothing by themselves; it is the actions that accompany these words that speak volumes about where our hearts and true intentions lie.