So Many Choices
God has given us a free will and a multitude of choices to make in this life.
Various Internet sources estimate that an adult makes about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day. While this is a crazy big number of choices, you see how fast they can add up to a very large number if you break down all the types of choices. Each day we make 226.7 decisions on just food alone, according to researchers at Cornell University (Wansink and Sobal, 2007). That’s just food!
Then add responsibility in life with your career level, size of family and your hobbies, as well as social activities! This becomes a vast smorgasbord of choices that you are faced with each day. God has given us a free will and a multitude of choices to make in this life. Some with greater consequences than others, but some simple ones are:
· How much screen time – cable or streaming? Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest?
· What to buy - in the store or online?
· What we believe – TMZ or Billy Graham?
· What jobs and career choices we will pursue? Army or animal shelter?
· How we vote? Red or Blue, Donkey or Elephant or other?
· How we’ll spend our free time – active or sedentary?
· What we’ll have for dinner – farm to table or freezer to microwave?
· What we say and how we say it – PC or no filter?
There is absolute truth in this world, will you be brave enough to find it!
Each choice carries certain consequences – positive and negative. This ability to choose is an incredible and exciting power that we have each been entrusted with by our Creator and for which we have an obligation to be good stewards.
A few things to remember about choices are:
1. They compound. The accumulated choices of fast food eating all work together over a lifetime to take us to various outcomes of obesity or weight gain, high blood glucose, high cholesterol, diabetes or even more serious health risks of cancer or a heart attack. Individual choices that concern only us – such as what to eat for lunch – will seemingly only impact us personally. It’s our time, our expense, our taste buds, our energy levels, and our health.
2. These leadership decisions create a ripple effect for spouses, families, work teams, communities, states, nations and even the world-at-large. When you make negative choices, they impact others, whether you believe that to start or not. When you make the choice to fill your pantry with canned goods and freezer with sodium-filled pre-packed meals…you are making a choice that will affect your health. When you develop high blood pressure, you affect the healthcare system, your family, and others you work with as you have medical appointments and prescriptions to fill. The ripple effect goes out beyond you.
3. Choices can be new each day! The cool thing to remember is that choices can be made new, right, and positive each day! Each day brings new HOPE! You can start making good choices that compound positively and send new ripples out today! There is no waiting in line. I’ll start the first of the month or required holding period for making better choices! Begin today!
A small choice - apple or an orange?
So... start small - did I move and eat right this week? NO…start tracking your activity and food today! Log how these changes make you feel. Be aware and mindful of what you are doing; make conscious choices that will positively affect the next choice you have. If you are tired, get up and move instead of eating chips…you’ll get more energy and feel like you have a clearer head to make the next choice. I’ll skip that soda and have some water instead…this will make you feel good, and you will have energy for that workout after work. You will then make a smart dinner choice because you worked out, and fill your body with fuel, not entertainment. You then decide - I don’t need five hours of TV - I think I’ll take the dog for a walk and the kids can ride their bikes for some family time…or go shoot hoops and have a free throw contest. You can share this with someone else and start living a life of gratitude, being grateful for all you accomplished one choice at a time. See how your choices can easily become positive and create those great ripples to others.
Raising your awareness and being mindful of your choices is our goal this week. If you want float toward impulsively or a bad habit...stop...check the label. Look at the labels on your food before buying it.
Ask yourself is this a good, is there a better or is this the best choice. If you must have that thing ...do it, but then all other choices play off that one.
Approach each choice with thought and remember that you pay the consequences or reap the benefits of each choice. Remember to make your Creator happy or pleased with your stewardship, one choice at a time. He’s given us guidelines and free will…you choose!
So... that is the pep talk for today...make the rest of your life, the best of your life…one choice at a time!