When the Choice is Really Yours...

Every day.

Every day we are faced with choices... every day we make decisions, draw conclusions, and come into agreement with things or people or circumstances - almost unaware.

Some of our choices are formed by habit... choosing the same thing over and over lends to a routine that requires little choice at all. Your favorite outfit, your go to breakfast, the route you take to get to work, that morning coffee order...

Some of our choices are made on purpose... choosing a yogurt instead of the donuts, choosing to edit your thoughts before you speak your mind, being NICE when that is not what you feel like being, building up instead of tearing down...

Many of the choices we make, however, are made without thought. They can almost seem to be made for us... out of our control.

Friend, can I gently remind you that you hold the power of choice within you, no matter what you face each day... every day.

We've learned it real and lived it hard:

the lesson of the value that is immeasurable

when we count gifts and look for blessings...

...when we turn our attention to Him and give Him thanks; when we choose and determine to Speak Life, to Be Love, and to Shine On... every day. We've learned that this works... when it looks like it is working - and when it doesn't give any clue to whether or not He is at work at all.

Life can come down on you heavy, nearly suffocating the ability to fill your lungs, even just a little bit. You can round the bend only to be knocked off course fast... unsure of your footing and dizzy with confusion and pain.

Bent Over, but not Bent Low...

Panting for Air, but not Breathing In.

I am not saying to deny the truths of these things but to remember that even in the midst of challenges, possibly ESPECIALLY in the midst of challenges - we hold within us the power of choice. We are in Him and He is in us and we are One and we can choose to relish in that alone -count THAT! We can choose to silence the whisperings of the enemy shouting that we are in it all alone and that there is no hope. No - we can choose to not listen - to not entertain - to not give room for those thoughts to expand and take over!

Sometimes it has to be a choice on purpose to line up with what seems impossible, but we do it anyway - knowing that nothing is impossible when we are found in Him.

No - to Speak Life we must first

CHOOSE Life! 

We must stop making room and giving over chunks of time in our thoughts for Death... we must count on - even when the blessings are hidden and not where we want to find them. We count on anyway... we CHOOSE.

I am a faith girl, and one who strongly believes in the power of words... of what we speak AND what we allow to roll around in the back of our minds.  There is the power of life and death in our tongues... life and death for ourselves, and for those around us!  So let's purpose to CHOOSE life... to CHOOSE life in how we see ourselves, and those around us - in how we see our circumstances and what we deem 'impossible' or a 'lost cause'... let's ask Him for His perspective and what His choice for us would be and then, let's line up with that!

I know. I know it sounds so much easier than it really is and here is the secret of consistency in choosing on purpose, with purpose:

Do it anyway.

Do it when it's hard...

do it when it feels like

you are the only one doing it...

do it when it feels like

it's not working...

and here's the other key... don't do it in secret!

Take a risk and share it... let someone else know what you are choosing and why! Create a little community right where you need it most! They don't need to make the same choice... they don't even have to agree with yours... but let them in... Make it a discussion and find company in the struggle, commonality in the fight.  You may be surprised who will come alongside you in support of you (if not your choice)... for we were not meant for battle alone. We were created for Community and when we try to fight the impossibilities on our own, we fall under the attack of the enemy who woos us into thinking we have no other choice.

When really... the choice is ours... every day.

It's amazing what one small choice towards life - and one small step away from thoughts of death, of darkness, of impossibilities - can shift within you. Even if nothing on the outside changes, a ray of Light and a glimpse of Hope moves around inside of you and you will find yourself choosing on purpose, with purpose, more consistently.

Why, you ask? It's simple. Because when we teach ourselves this choice... this discipline... we find joy!

Joy!

...and who among us

couldn't use a little more peace,

a little more joy...

a little more Life

in our every days?