Your Choices Have Consequences

You made a choice to read this story today.  I really don't know your motivation for doing this but I'm grateful.  The truth is that you're making choices every moment of your day.  You choose what to read and what to ignore.  You choose what to eat and what not to eat.  You choose who you spend your time with.  You choose to attend your house of worship or to do something else instead.  

I do my best to worship God every Sunday.  In my denomination we also have "extra" days we are obligated to include like yesterday.  These "extra days" are sometimes overlooked because I forget since they are not part of my regular routine.  My wife chose to stay home because she was under the weather yesterday.  I hugged my son goodbye on my way to worship and wished him well on his night shift which would be starting in a couple of hours.  About fifty steps into my walk I heard my son yelling as he jogged toward me.  "I'm going with you," he said.  "I will need to leave a bit early to get to work on time but I want to join you."

We taught our children when they were growing up that when they are on their own it will be up to them to either worship or not worship.  God doesn't force anything on us.  Our pastor asked the congregation if anyone wanted to become a saint during his talk.  I thought, good question.  He enumerated all the qualities of sainthood beginning with the one thing every saint in Heaven has – sin.  We are all sinners, even the saints.  For me, attending weekly services helps me overcome my personal sin due to bad choices.  Asking for forgiveness is also on the list for those hopeful to one day become saints.

I would like to offer one final thought about choices and their consequences.  In my opinion, any choice you make that brings you closer to your Creator is a choice with positive consequences.  The reverse is also true – any choice you make that pushes you further from your Creator comes with negative consequences.  All of Heaven is cheering for positive choices while all of Hell is tempting you to veer away from choices that lead to sainthood.  They already chose to go their own way.  Their side has eternal negative consequences.  Their marketing is enticing but I caution you to see through the smoke and mirrors.  Make good choices.  Have a great day.