Limited Choice

I know this will come as no surprise to you, but I was an angelic child. I never gave my parents a moment of grief or concern. It wouldn’t even require one hand to count the number of times they received a call from a teacher. I loved, respected, and feared rules. In fact, I only got one detention in high school my senior year which was given to me for the simple reason of having never gotten detention.

So, as I sat at the parents’ night for my eldest child’s new high school and listened to the principal review the rules and expectations, I was overjoyed with the clarity and structure provided. However, I was caught off guard by something the principal said in her presentation – a simple reminder. She shared with the students earlier that day that "every choice you make limits future choices." While it’s true, and perhaps obvious, it challenged me.

As I drove home from the event, I thought about all the little and big choices I had made in the last week or two and how little I reflected on what other choices they eliminated for me. Sure, I thought about what might happen or what I might get, but I really wasn’t conscious about what limits I might be placing on my future. We live in a culture that values individual freedom, but how often do we think of ourselves as the primary agent limiting that freedom? Whether it’s in an email I send to a colleague, a decision I make for the organization, or a pattern of sin that I keep falling into, how often do I ask God not only to show me the way, but also to help me consider all of the implications of my choices?

I appreciated that my daughter’s principal wanted not to limit her free will, but rather to enlighten her to the power of her choices. As we go through this week, let’s pray for the wisdom to understand the power of our choices and pray with gratitude for a God who always allows us the choice to return to Him.