Have you ever made a bad choice?
There are certain choices that cost less, and others that cost you more.
Do you want to know how to make better choices?

Resist living by default

Some of you make choices by default…whatever comes your way.
Never allow life to make your decisions for you. Living by default steals your potential. Default living keeps us at the mercy of life…off balance and unprepared.
The default life resembles the life of Rip Van Winkle. Rip went to sleep and woke up 20 years later, unprepared for what was in front of him.

Choices are big

• The choice of faith determines your spiritual life.
• The choice of a career determines your work environment.
• The choice of where we live determines the climate you experience.
• The choice of church attendance determines your weekend schedule.

It is true, sometimes good choices can end with bad results. But making good decisions are the foundation of a good life.

Don’t you wish every choice you made was great?

It is never easy to make the best choice, especially if you are suffering from emotional trauma or caught in a crisis.

Temptation plays a big role in the choices we make.  There are obvious temptations such as a man checking out a woman.  There are also more subtle temptations such as the need to achieve, to be accepted, to be wanted, to be wealthy, to be critical, to be judgmental, to compare yourself, to be envious, to quit, to over medicate, or to be offended. These are real-life challenges.

Temptations are open doors to poor choices. We can choose wrongly because we are fundamentally unhappy and searching for satisfaction. This search leads you to anesthetize areas where you are not emotionally healthy.

So, we search for pleasure in the wrong things. Things such as unhealthy relationships, achievement, sex, drugs, drinking, and codependency.

Some choices leave permanent trails

• The choice to cheat on a spouse
• The choice to drink and drive
• The choice to divorce
• The choice of abortion
• The choice to not forgive

Choices never offer an erase button.  The decisions you make at critical points in your life are the key to the way your life turns out. Some decisions are irreversible. However, making great choices create a great life.

The choice to vape can end your life.  The choice to stop vaping results in better health.

The choice to change your alcohol consumption matters. Drinking and driving is a poor choice. DWI’s are irreversible on your record and hard to overcome.

Risky sexual encounters are not a great choice.  You may think risky sex is fun, but it can negatively change our lives forever. The cost of an STD is no fun and carries long-term health issues. The cost of becoming pregnant is huge. Bringing a child into this world is irreversible.  Someone will raise a precious child and care for the child for many years. Raising a child is expensive, carries a grave responsibility, and will affect your life forever.

When you make healthy wise choices, you can protect yourself from some irreversible outcomes. This is living life by intention. When you make your choices from temptation or circumstance, it’s normally the wrong choice.

Whatever we choose, chooses us.

If you choose anger, you receive anger. If you choose fear, you receive fear. Choosing bitterness results in bitterness.

There is no way around it. Choices always determine outcomes.

We change our world by making good choices.

You’re not a winner or a loser, but a chooser, so choose wisely.

Best wishes, Thomas

Thomas McDaniels is a pastor/writer and the guy behind thomasmcdaniels.com. He has written for ChurchLeaders.com and currently writes op-eds for Fox News. He is also the Founder of LifeBridge.tv and the Longview Dream Center in Longview, Texas. Thomas can be found on social media on Instagram.

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