You Are A Product of Your Choices (2)

Our parents chose to give birth to us and they did. They could as well elect not to produce children! They decided at a stage in our lives to send us to schools. Some parents decided not to educate their children! Some us that are lucky to be sent to school chose to drop out and they did! All of us have the choice to work or to remain idle. Many chose to work while some decided not to work. Many decided to get married and they did. Some decided against marriage. Some chose to plan for their retirement by investing wisely while they work while some of us decided to lavish all that we have on wine, alcohol and women (WAW)! Death, though, inevitable as we know, yet some of us elect to die well by impacting our generations positively while some elected to be remembered for the evils they did to their own generations!

Above all, some of us, rather than focus on pursuing all the seven stages of life so as to make good successes out of them choose to abandon them altogether and focus our attention on mundane things which distract them from the good destinies that have been ordained for them. Some of these are laziness leading to poverty, disobedience to God leading to curse, disobedience to parents which lead to avoidable mistakes that eventually cut short the lives of such children. Some chose to meditate upon the word of God, study hard as students and they become knowledgeable and wise; some choose the path of complaining and they dry up; some pursue their own selfish wills and end up in frustration.

Whichever way we go, the repercussions, good, or bad are always there for us. The writer continues to wonder how our youths today remain unemployed in the face of massive employment opportunities available to them. They just don’t want to start their lives in a low-key. They want to get rich quick. They complain about not being rich when they are unfaithful in the little assignments that are placed before them to become rich in life.This is sad but it is the reality of our lives which if nothing is done about, the repercussions are awaiting us at one point in our lives or the other.

Youths are therefore particularly enjoined to ensure that they take their lives seriously by moving closer to God and be prepared to labour with their own hands so that their lives can be better than those of the generations before them. Though, golden as these counsels may be, it’s all a matter of choice!

You Are A Product of Your Choices (1)

Life is a Matter of Choice! Many people succeed or fail in life not because of the circumstances of their lives nor is it because of their social status. Those who fail do so not because some enemies are out there pursuing them. They failed not because that well known personality called – S A T A N - succeeded in stealing their destiny from them. Indeed foolish people easily attribute their woes, not to themselves but to this imaginary personality called Satan who ordinarily have no iota of control over their lives.

To clear the air on the fact that it is not Satan for instance that cause our downfall but ourselves through the choices we make in life. 

My Pastor, Bunmi Elesho of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (Light of Life Parish) recently took his listeners through the most relevant passages in the Bible (two of which will be cited as we make progress) in this article. He postulated that we are a product of our choices. Hear him: ‘The choices we made yester-years are the result of the status we are today. The choices we are making today will produce the status we are going to attain tomorrow. Therefore all about what happens to us is about the choices we make”. The writer shares his views without question!

Some youths in our society who held on to the so called 'satanic' theory, unfortunately have jettisoned the truth that they are their own real enemies. They have refused to move an inch towards progress and eventual good success that God has ordained for them. The greatest calamity that can befall anybody is to do nothing about his life himself. Precisely this is what they do!

There are many instances that people were enjoined to make choices in the Bible. Notable amongst them were Deuteronomy 30:19 where Moses said “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

Joshua said to the Israelites: “But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” (Jos.25:15)

Our secular life is divided into seven stages: these are: birth, education, career (including creating wealth), marriage (including parenting), retirement, death, history.

In all these situations, we are bound to make choices and take decisions. Every decision (or action) we make concerning them is a choice. Every choice we make is a decision and every decision has its own repercussions – blessings or curses!  (To be continued)