IOW---Choices

Last evening we went for a family walk--something that we do most evenings now that the time has changed and it is light until very late. New the last couple of walks is that we are leaving the push chair home and letting Flower walk the entire 1.25 mile trek holding someone's hand. As she and I were walking, hand-in-hand, someone else was walking on the other side of the street with their dogs. Flower kept turning to watch. This caused her to pull away from me and stretch our holding hands to the limit. At one point I said, "I'd like to have more looking forward and less looking backward to make this easier." Immediately, God impressed upon my heart one thought...."exactly."

More looking forward and less looking backward. I choose whether to dwell on the things of the past or the things of now and the future. I choose whether to second-guess and wish things were different or I choose to allow God to mold me into the person He desires me to be. Every moment is a choice of going backward or going forward. Paul said it this way:

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

We must be making choices that propel us heavenward. In his great masterpiece, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis reminds us,

"Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before... either into a creature that is in harmony with God, ...or into one that is in a state of war with God. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other."

He doesn't say sometimes when you choose you change, not even most times when you choose, he says every time. Every choice matters. Every choice shapes us. And every choice demonstrates to the world Who we are serving (or not serving). Every choice.

Just as I was wishing Flower would focus on propelling forward as we walked, I am certain my Heavenly Father wishes I would focus on propelling forward as well. He isn't going to let go of me when I loosen my focus on Him, but it does slow down the process of me getting to where He wants me. Today I choose to move forward. How about you?

Christine at Fruit in Season is our hostess this week for CWO's In Other Words. Please come join us!