Choices

A memory from the 60’s weaves through my thoughts today. It is a warm Mother’s Day afternoon in Southern Illinois, and we drive to the local Dairy Queen for the annual family celebration. My dear husband asks what each one wants from Dairy Queen. I listen as Dan definitively chooses chocolate covered cone, Paul also makes his choice quickly. Tim listens intently to his brothers, and then makes his choice. Anna wants a plain cone. I watch Tim’s face, as concern etches across as their Dad opens the door to go fill the orders. Tim yells out the station wagon window, “Make it a plain cone….no make it chocolate covered…..no….” By then Dad is ordering. Choices at the Dairy Queen was a muddle for our Tim. He must remember those experiences because he tucks a $5 bill in every Mother’s Day card. And I remember how difficult choices can be.

Choices are difficult at every stage of life. The choices teach us discernment and are based on the underlying values we have chosen for our life. Without the foundation of what is right and what is wrong, we waver in our decision-making every day. Not making choices is not an option, for in not making a choice, we have made a choice.

When I was about 10 years old, Mother gave me a lesson in decision making. Potato harvest was at hand….and a huge hill of potatoes, dug from our garden, appeared in our back yard. Mother told me to sort the potatoes into piles of large, small and in-between sized potatoes. There were no patterns of a large or small or in-between potatoes, it was strictly my decision. I cringed as the hill of potatoes swiftly became a mountain range of potatoes to my eyes. I remember muttering, “How big is big, how little is little?” I began my task on that warm sunny day, knowing I would grow old here beside that pile of potatoes in the backyard.

When the larger decisions came about, I was still concerned with every decision. For I learned that my choices created changes in my life. At first the decisions had to do with learning obedience to my parents. Then they were life-altering decisions – where would I go to college, what would I do with my life, who would I marry? Some decisions were easy and some were difficult. Marrying my husband was easy, and yet after four children, I knew I needed to teach which meant more college to finish my degree and follow that path. And now I can see God’s leading in my life, despite my challenged-decision making ability that followed me. Retirement gave me pause, what would I choose to do now? Who am I? God gave me many things to do and to learn.

Mother, my first teacher, told me that each day she asked God – What would you have me do today. She chose to make God her spiritual compass for her every day activities. When God brought her to a way to serve others, she chose to do so. How easy it would have been for her to choose not to be aware of needs, to sink into a puddle of self-pity and inaction. Her insights and wisdom, so in alignment with God’s Word, continues to bless me thirteen years after her death.

I choose…. What interesting words. What I choose each day denotes action. Choosing means there is a purpose and a direction from which to choose. When visiting with my dear Aunt Irene, she shared with me her testimony. It included these words concerning my Grandfather…. prayed a blessing for his “Nach komen” – those who would come after him. I know now that every choice I make impacts the lives of those I love, even to my “nach komen” for many generations after me. I know I am dependent on God for every aspect of my life and so I choose my path. I choose Jesus.

Recently I read in Max Lucado’s book….When God Whispers Your Name…. – I choose….Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. The end of Galatians 5:22-23 reads, “Against such things there is no law.”

The fruit of the spirit is an excellent spiritual compass. Selah. (Pause and Reflect). (This word was used recently to describe my Uncle Eli – the Selah Man at his memorial.) In today’s world that spins around us so rapidly with demands and decisions, it is good to pause and reflect and realign my foundational compass on the truth and the way. God has numbered my days, and with each day, I know I have one more day to pray – to love – and to hunger and thirst for His righteousness.

Obedience, faith and trust are the stepping stones to joy everlasting. I remember the lesson in obedience my mother taught me when I was twelve years old (1941). I came home from school ready to relax only to find a sink of dirty dishes and a note, please wash these dishes.. Love, Mom.

I deliberately chose to disobey, and soon forgot the note, although I did wonder why she left the tea towel folded on the wooden counter. When Mother came home an hour later, she calmly said, “I see you did not wash the dishes.” I thought she would be angry, but she was very calm as she unfolded the tea towel and revealed a Hershey chocolate bar.

My eyes grew wide, I could taste that rarely offered chocolate bar. All because I chose not to obey, I lost that treasured chocolate delight.

Even so, that bravado of my teen years, doing as I pleased, has become submission to my husband and to our Lord. Praying for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and our ‘Nack komen’ is my joy as long as He gives me breath, gives me joy.

Each one of us must choose for himself his path. Each one of us must live our lives not in our own wisdom, but His. I just pray that no one misses the treasured delight of a life eternal. How glorious is His Name.

Who, then, are those who fear the LORD? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose. Psalm 25:12

Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, Proverbs 8:10

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. John 15:16