It’s Your Choice

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. We write for just 5 minutes on a one-word prompt without heavy editing and see what happens. Today’s prompt is “yours.”

[start timer]

Boy is it ever easy to get sucked into the shallow thinking and arguments of the world around us. What I really want people to get is that the choice of whether or not to go to those places is completely theirs.

I used to tell my kids this all the time: You have no control over how someone reacts to something you do, but you can totally control your own reaction. If you choose to get mad at small offenses, then that’s your choice.

If you choose to engage in reckless rhetoric or intentional shaming or hurtful speech, that’s your choice.

If you make the decision to be more like Jesus in all that you do, think and say, that’s your choice as well.

What you need to know, though, is that each and every choice has a consequence. Will you be a peacemaker or will you contribute to the vitriol?

Romans 12:18 in the Common English Bible says, “If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people.”

To the best of your ability.

That’s huge. Because there are some things we can’t control. The weather, the stock market, our kids’ decisions. Other people. But we can control our tongues, and we can control our reactions.

Ah yes, you might say, but easier said than done. Granted. But if you are submitted to the lordship of Christ, then that control is given over to him as well. And he is able.

[time’s up]

photo by Aaron Burden from UnSplash