Before we go any further, let’s discuss the importance of making decisions! Our decisions are the foundation of what our lives will look like, they provide the direction for everything in your lives. Make a good decision and your life compass will go towards a life full of hope. Make a bad decision and your life compass will lead us into a life of despair unless that direction is corrected.
When we make decisions, the first thing we tend to do is to make them from a self-centered perspective. In other words, what we think will “happen to us” is at the center of our thought process. Very seldom do we first take into consideration the effects that decisions will have on others? Nor, do we consider that our decision may carry with it a lifetime of consequences, for us and for those who we care about.
Another issue is that we seldom use a process for our decision making. A thought will come into our mind and we quickly move to action. Think about it; today, when you decided what you would eat for lunch, did you consider the calories or the nutritional value? Did you give any thought that you might need to eat something else to fuel your body? Probably not, unless you are extremely health conscious.
Unfortunately, we go through our whole life processing decisions without a plan for making good decisions. We also tend to think of only ourselves and the immediate gratification of our choices. We aren’t looking at the effects our decisions will have on our future or the people touched by them.
Over the next few days, I hope to help you with a step by step process for making good decisions. You may not need to use it for simple things, like what to eat for lunch, but I do hope it will make you think more about the big decisions you need to make in your life.
Questions: Think of a decision you made today (it can be anything, even what you chose to wear for the day). What were your thoughts as you were making it, do you remember?
Have there been decisions you have had to make recently that have made you think of the consequences before you made them?
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you, that you gave us the freedom of choice. That we are allowed to make our own decisions, that we aren’t puppets on a string.