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It's In The Choices
April 16th, 2010
By Greg Tutwiler, CCLC, BCPC
What do you find yourself up against these days? An overwhelming job situation, not enough income, a struggling relationship, difficult family dynamics, spiritual battle ... ? Our battles are most often within ourselves, not against people or situations. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12) Leo Tolstoy wrote, "Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on how we see them." Norman Vincent Peal wrote, "never underestimate the power of a positive attitude." It comes down to choice. We can't often choose the circumstances, but we can choose our response. And our response sets the tone for the rest of our day. Negativity breeds negativity. And a positive attitude not only fosters a positive nature within us, it influences others around us. (Just as the negativity does.)

I love what Max Lucado says about freedom. "The only true freedom each of us has in life is the freedom to choose. But once we choose, we become the servant to our choices." And then he observes C. S. Lewis writing, "Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part that chooses, into something a little different than what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature."

Think about your choices over the past 30 days for a moment. Which direction are they nudging you in? Think about the folks around you, the ones you care about and the ones that are most important in your life. What direction do you see them drifting in? Can you correlate their attitude with choices they've made?

Author David Root wrote, "Are you speaking faith words or doubt words? Conquering words or fear words? Healing words or sickness words? Positive words or negative, complaining words? It's time to cut out all of the pity partiesand the complaining and the negative talk, and instead saturate your mind and your words with the things that God says and with praises and thanksgiving." We have a choice in all of this. We get to pick what stays in our minds, and what comes out of our mouths. We really do. Proverbs 23:7 says, "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." James Allen wrote in his famous book inspired by that verse, "A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts."

The more I traverse this journey of mine, the more I've come to realize that most of my struggles in the past haven't been near as much about the people and situations as they are with the way I chose to handle them. Now, I understand that all of this is a maturity process. But so was the desert experience for the Israelites. And it took them 40 years to get it. We hamper our own growth by the way we navigate our existence.

The next time you're faced with a choice, consider your attitude at that moment. What is your posture towards God? Where is He in the decision making process? Jim Rohn says, "Any day we wish we can discipline ourselves to change." We really can choose to change everything, or nothing. "The choices are ours to make. But while we curse the effect, we continue to nourish the cause." Don't fall into that trap. Examine every choice as if your life depended on it. Often times it does.

          
                                                                                                                                                                            
Greg Tutwiler, CCLC, BCPC

Coach Greg Tutwiler
Greg Tutwiler is a Certified Christian Life Coach (CCLC) by the Professional Christian Coaching and Counseling Academy, a Board Certified Pastoral Counselor (BCPC) by the International Board of Christian Counselors (IBCC), a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), an Affiliate Coach, Certified Discipleship Coach and Coach Trainer with Blueprint For Life Institute, and an ordained minister with the Trinity Institute of Christian Counseling and The United New Testament Church. Greg is co-pastor of TrueLife Church, founder of the Kingdom Life Institute, and is a trained Theophostic Prayer Minister. He is also author of the book, Stand Your Ground, available at Amazon.com, and  the new books Passages, and The Transformational Life Journal . He is author and publisher of www.ChristianLifePerspectives.com, and www.DiscoveringTheLife.com. You can visit his web site at www.freedomliving.org, or email him at [email protected].
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