This Choice Is Not an Option

"Choices are important." When I was raising my older children, there was no such thing as choice; they did it --whatever it was --or they suffered the consequences. The voice in the training video now instructed me to offer choices. "Are you going to clean your room now, or are you going to do your homework?" As I considered this "new" way of approaching parenting, I recalled how exhausting my earlier days of parenting were. Yes, I was working, and raising children, and homeschooling, and struggling with who I was, and trying to keep up with erroneous standards, and all of that; but how many problems of my own did I create by simply barking out orders and expecting them to be done to my liking? How many times did I take something that would have required fifteen minutes of my self-control and attention, and turn it into a relationship-busting, vein-popping, DEFCON One Level afternoon of frustration and tears? Choices are important. They teach a child how to make choices by allowing them to experience the consequences of those choices. They teach a child they are respected and gently safeguarded by their parent, in their home. They teach a child time management. They teach a child that there are things to be done, not burdens to crush them. They teach a child the importance of self-control through the living example of a self-controlled parent. Choices are important to children of all ages.

Our Father God gives each one of His children choices as well. We are given resources to steward: time, relationships, finances, skills, opportunities, knowledge, etc. "Are you going to abuse the time I've given you by scrolling social media, or are you going to write that text to encourage your sister?" God allows the consequences of our choices to perfect us in that area. Knowing that God has generously given us the resource of time, for instance, but loves us enough to call us to account for our usage, demonstrates His loving care for us and His protection of us. And He calls us to more than we are willing or able to see for ourselves. Allowing us to choose teaches us how to best manage the resources He has given. How long will the family sit quietly at an empty table if I choose to sleep in rather than go to work? I need to manage my time more prudently to avoid a mutiny. The choice and its consequences are solely on me. In essence, God tells His children, "Here is what is best for you, but you are free to choose the other." He does not desire to crush us; poor choices will eventually do that. We follow His Spirit's direction, His example in Jesus Christ, His "advice," if you will, in Torah, and we see self-control in action. It's all a choice: we choose to pursue, to be made better by His grace, to obey, or we don't. But is it optional?

Not if you've made a choice. We are free to sit back and allow time to pass; but eternal life is just as much a quality of life as a quantity of life. If we choose to do nothing, we get nothing. If we choose to squander the resources God gives us, they will be gone, and squander, by definition means with nothing to show for them. No lessons learned, no transformation of character, nothing of any eternal value to bring to account. Not much of an option, is it? At least, it's nothing I'd like to regard as optional. By choosing to follow the Spirit's direction, the example of Jesus, and the tenets of Scripture, we change the course and the quality of our lives and the lives of those around us. And because we live in a world that is counter to those things, we've got to stand passionately and soberly by our choice; that means reckoning our choice as being not optional. The choice to go against the cultural current cannot be optional. It's going to take everything we've got and the powerful grace of our Redeemer and Defender to keep us in the way. We can't hop on and off the "eternity train" whenever it suits and expect to get where we are called to go. Choices are important, but what is equally important is cleaving to and esteeming the choice without option.