Choices...

Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla, 

I am back in Genesis once again and have reached the very beginning of Chapter 3 and am thinking on choices and how God placed a test in the garden of Eden giving the residents an opportunity to exercise God's  gift of free will.  Would not it have been better not to have been given the opportunity?  Think on that for a bit. How would you know that you truly loved Him unless you had a choice? Without free will...without a choice...love and devotion have no meaning.

God knows all things and in His foreknowledge He knew that man, when He created him, would fail and make the wrong choices. He knew that the price of our redemption would be the shed blood of His Son on a cross.  And yet, God created us...you and me...to have a meaningful, intimate relationship with Him anyway. God  gave man the capacity to choose because without choice man becomes a robot.  How much fun is it to have a relationship with a robot.  It will obey you...but..you know...it has to.   Think on the meaningful relationships in your lives.  How much depth is there because you know they want to be with you...it is their desire to know you and spend time with you.

But here is the thing with choices...when we make them, we show our hearts to all.  Our actions will indicate to all what our heart believes. The choices that I make show me where my heart is and what it is set on.....especially those I make in regard to God and the people God has placed in my life.  In much the same way I can see by the choices the people I love make in their own lives, where their heart is focused and for better or for worse, where I stand with them.  Our choices reveal much.

Take a moment and do an inventory of where your time and energy is focused and what it says to those you love about where they stand...more important...take a moment and look at your relationship with the Lord.  How much time do you spend with Him and His word.  It has been said that couples who have spent years in each others company begin to resemble one another.  Are you looking more and more like Jesus because of the time you are spending with Him or more and more like the world as a result of the daily choices you are making? 

Love
Mom