Psalm 119:173 Choices

May your hand be ready to help me,
 for I have chosen your precepts.
Psalm 119:173

God is ready to give a helping hand while you're traveling the road of life.

Are you?

Are you ready to help people make the most important choices of their life?

When I first wrote the previous question, it was Are you ready to help people make the most important choice of life? But it should be choices.

The difference is vital.

In 1978 I made a choice of whom to marry. It was a very good choice, one I've never regretted. 

I've made the choice each and every day since then to continue being married. I keep making that choice because choosing to be with her and stay with her is part of choosing His precepts.

We've chosen many times to be patient with each other. We've chosen to support one another, to be honest with each other, to never talk smack about one another to other people. We've chosen repeatedly to communicate, to make decisions together, to make time for each other.

When we went through heart-rending times as foster parents, we agreed together to choose to not let the stress tear apart our bond, but to make the hard choices that would cement our bond even tighter by working through the tough times together.

Everything that's important in life requires making a choice. And making that choice again and again.

God has always been there with us when we're making choices. Even if we skipped a few days or weeks, forgetting to live intentionally and choose intentionally, He chose to hang in there with us, waiting patiently for us to choose again.

God's precepts are also always there when we're making those choices. It can become all too easy to fall out of the habit of making good choices, but making the good choice to meditate on God's precepts every day is the best way to stay on track or get back on track.

Another good choice to make, and to remake every day, is the choice to help others make good choices.

I used to think my job as a Christian is to convince people to choose to believe and be baptized, and once I did that I could move on to someone else.

That's so short sighted.

There are people I encounter every day who need to be encouraged to make good choices in small ways. As a rideshare driver I regularly encounter people who need just a little piece of advice or a word of encouragement about relationships, their job, their children, or their choices about setting boundaries.

I could easily rationalize that I'm just there to give them a ride and I shouldn't get all up into their business. And I don't butt in. I don't force myself into their lives. But I do make the choice to ask the kind of questions that prompt them to open up a little. God and I can use that window to help travelers along their way toward discovering His heart.

Because that's the destination. That's where we're all headed to on this journey of life, whether or not we all know it.

We're returning to the heart of God.

And we're in it together.