Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Make Good Choices Moment To Moment

“The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

-- John 10:10

Yesterday I had a choice to make. I could choose something healthy and low-calorie for lunch. Or I could choose something unhealthy, high-calorie and yummy. I chose the yummy. And then I felt guilty.

Life is all about choices. And, yes, sometimes those choices are big ones. We give a great deal of time and thought and prayer to moving across the country or changing jobs. But we don’t tend to think so much about those smaller choices.

So we make choices that end up becoming bad habits. And bad habits are really hard to change. Why do you think that is?

Well, they’re part of who we are. Even the ones that are destructive. Even the ones we hate the most. Because it’s comfortable, like having that bowl of ice cream every night before we go to bed. Being overweight is who we are. Being tipsy at every gathering is who we are. Using foul language all the time is who we are.

But we don’t want to be who we are anymore. So why do we keep making bad choices? Maybe we think we don’t deserve better. Maybe it’s safer to be who we’ve always been than to dare to become who we might be.

Then one day you wake up and decide this time you really are going to change. This time you’re going to make the right choices. That’s when Satan starts his steady chant. He’s quick to remind you that you can’t change. That you’ll never be more than you are right now. Satan makes us forget he is a liar.

Honestly, it would be easier to just keep on doing what we’ve always done. But we can change if we want to. It won’t be easy. But it is possible. How? By making good choices, moment to moment. It’s not about the choice you made yesterday or the choice you might make tomorrow. It’s about the choice you make in this moment that counts.

I think sometimes we fail because we’re trying to leave behind all our bad habits in one massive jump. We’re just setting ourselves up for failure. Nobody can do all that and the frustration of it will send anybody scurrying for the chocolate.

Pick one thing. Just one. Then make right choices until those choices are the habits you always wanted to have. Then pick another and stay with it until your choices are now your habits. And on and on. One choice at a time. One moment at a time.