make good choices

Sowing and Reaping

Posted on by Betsy

From the mouths of babes, Chapter 1.

I gave my four-year-old grandson a bath last week and watched as he happily played with his Little People bath toys. I noticed that he was stuffing them all in the rinsing cup until it was full. “Why are all the Little People in the cup?” I asked. “Oh,” he replied. “They’re in cup jail.” “Good heavens!” I said. “What did they do to be put in cup jail?” I asked. He looked me straight in the eye. “They made baaaad choices,” he responded solemnly.

Well, you just can’t argue with that.

My daughters are constantly advising their children to make good choices. When a bad choice seems to be asserting itself, they caution them to “make a better choice.” Even the four-year-old understands the consequences of bad choices.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia, he gave the same parenting advice. Remember how much Paul loved his churches, and truly felt a parental responsibility for each one of them. Listen to what he says in this well-known warning about reaping and sowing.

Galatians 6:7-8 (Common English Bible)

7 Make no mistake, God is not mocked. A person will harvest what they plant. 8 Those who plant only for their own benefit will harvest devastation from their selfishness, but those who plant for the benefit of the Spirit will harvest eternal life from the Spirit.

God pays attention to everything we say and do, and when those choices don’t fall in line with his word and his will for our lives, you can be sure there will be ramifications. I have a friend who spent a year denouncing an organization that she belonged to and basically burned every bridge on her way out. She returned to that organization recently and was hurt when someone asked her in surprise why she had come to the meeting. Reaping and sowing are basic to life. When you sow discord and rejection, you risk reaping discord and rejection.

Think for a moment about how you treat others. When you sow anger, discrimination, harsh words, and carelessness, these things will come back to you tenfold. Overindulgence in consuming things that are ultimately harmful to your body will result in actual harm to your body. Lying, cheating, and gossip often backfire and expose you to ridicule and alienation. Are these things worth the temporary pleasure?

A better choice is to sow the seeds of love and acceptance. A better choice is to choose healthy things for your body ,mind, and soul. A better choice is to plant seeds for the benefit of God’s kingdom. That will result in a harvest of eternal life and help you to avoid cup jail.

And trust me, you don’t want to end up in cup jail.

Harvesting Eternal Life by Michelle Robertson

Choose This Day

Posted on by Betsy

Every day is filled with choices. Coffee or tea? Eggs or cereal? Jeans or leggings? Work or goof off? According to UNC-TV Science, people make approximately 35,000 choices every day. I can say from experience that not all of them are good ones.

Young parents tell their children to “make good choices.” Our hope for our children is that if we raise them with a firm foundation of what constitutes a good choice, they will continue to operate from that perspective all their lives. God has the same hope for us as well.

When Joshua and the nation of Israel finally arrived at their new home in the Promised Land, Joshua instructed the people to make a good choice. This was one that would determine the viability of the nation. Whether or not they would prosper or fail miserably was completely dependent on what they would choose on this day.

Joshua 24 (Common English Bible)

1 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders of Israel, its leaders, judges, and officers. They presented themselves before God.

14 “So now, revere the Lord. Serve him honestly and faithfully. Put aside the gods that your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt and serve the Lord. 15 But if it seems wrong in your opinion to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Choose the gods whom your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But my family and I will serve the Lord.”

The time had arrived to decide. All of the little idols and gods that they had adopted along the way had to be discarded now. Would they comply?

16 Then the people answered, “God forbid that we ever leave the Lord to serve other gods!17 The Lord is our God. He is the one who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. He has done these mighty signs in our sight. He has protected us the whole way we’ve gone and in all the nations through which we’ve passed.18 The Lord has driven out all the nations before us, including the Amorites who lived in the land.

This is a good question for us as well today. Will we let go of the false idols of celebrity, power, influencers, bad habits, self-indulgence, our own stubbornness, etc., or will we serve the Lord? It is literally a choice we need to make every day. God expects that if we choose to serve him, it will be obvious by everything ELSE we choose…especially what we choose to say, do, think, post, and how we allocate our resources.

Do your choices reflect God? Or do they reflect the world?

The people answered Joshua with sincerity. They were willing to discard every little god they had picked up along the way. They saw God’s power, heard his invitation, and decided for him.

We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

How about you? Whom will you serve today? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

New Day, New Choices by Michelle Robertson