"Choices" & A Giveaway

 "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, 'I have no pleasure in them.'" Ecclesiastes 12:1

When I was young, I took a walk with a boy through the woods of a church campground, and he offered me drugs. I remember feeling so shocked that he and some other young people were daring enough to do drugs right there on the church campground. I remember how appealing he made it sound and how I was somewhat tempted because he was a few years older and considered "cool," and I guess I was a bit flattered that he was interested in me. He knew nothing of the tug-of-war that raged within as we walked side by side.

Another time,

as a relative that I was very close to and I walked along a busy road, he tried his utmost to get me to smoke a cigarette. I'll admit that I was tempted. After all, most of the people I hung around with smoked, and I, like everyone else, wanted to fit in. 

Another day, I was riding bikes with a friend named Tonda through the parking lot of a shopping center. As we rode along, we came upon a cigarette machine, and she stopped to buy a pack. Back in those days, you didn't have to walk into a store and ask a cashier to sell them to you. All you needed were a few coins, and they were soon in your hands. I can still see her opening the blueish-green pack and handing one to me. I took the cigarette between the first two fingers of my right hand and lifted it to my lips.

These are just a tiny sampling of the countless times throughout life that I have come face to face with the choice of whether or not to stray from my careful Christian upbringing. 

Something deep within my tender heart won the war inside, and I ended up saying no to the boy's drug offer. Soon after our walk in the woods, a pastor I highly respected caught the boy and the other kids doing drugs. I can't even express the relief I felt to be able to look that pastor in the eye and know he had no reason to be disappointed in me.

Again, that "something deep within my tender heart" won, and I mustered the fortitude to turn down the cigarette being offered by the relative I was so close to. Just a few years ago, it broke my heart when he died, long before his time, after a lifelong struggle with severe addiction. 

As I held the cigarette close to my lips that day in the parking lot with Tonda, that "something deep within my tender heart" won out again, and I ended up handing the cigarette back to her. I still remember the disappointment in her eyes, but I also remember seeing a sense of respect and how she didn't push the issue. I tried to find her online today, and imagine my surprise to see her name chiseled on a gravestone. How could we have known that day at the age of 13 that just 13 years later, her life would come to a close at the age of 26? 

Where temptations go, choices follow, and choices have consequences. Had I made the choice to say yes to the boy's offer of drugs or my relative's or Tonda's offer of a cigarette, there is a pretty good chance that it wouldn't have been a one-time occurrence. I feel pretty certain that one fix would have called for another, I could have become addicted, and my life's trajectory could have gone in an entirely different direction. 

How I thank God that I was raised in a Christian home! That "something deep within my tender heart" was instilled by parents who loved the Lord and taught me to "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." Ecclesiastes 12:13 They stressed the whole chapter of Ecclesiastes 12 to me and always cautioned me to remember God in my youth. Though I have certainly made my share of failures throughout life, I never wanted to intentionally hurt my parents or the Lord, and this very thing has kept me on the straight and narrow more times than I can count. Even now, those guidelines of faith govern my decisions and every choice I make.

One day, I was visiting a friend in a Hospice center, and as I was walking down the hall, I stopped to say hello to a patient standing outside her room. I noticed she was staring out the window across the hall, and the words she said went something like this, "I'm just standing here watching those young people out there smoking. If they were standing here in my shoes, they sure would make a different choice." The poor woman was gasping for air and sounded like she had very little lung capacity left. Part of me wanted to run outside and tell the smokers to come in and take a listen to her breathe and to what she had to say. Then it hit me that they more than likely wouldn't make a different choice even if she did warn them. The young and strong and healthy who are in their "sowing" season of life seldom think about the harvest that will come from the seeds they are sowing and old age seems so far away. Her words bring Ecclesiastes 11:9 to mind, "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."

Recently, while we were visiting with our dear friends, David and Wanda, and David and I were singing together, he started belting out one of my all-time favorite George Jones songs, written by Billy Wayne Yates and Michael A. Curtis. David did an amazing job, as always. The words are chilling and sobering, but so, so true. I hope you enjoy our version of "Choices."

May God help us all to make the choice to follow Jesus. It is a path of no regret.

My sweet friend, Linda Stoll, has so graciously written a book review for and is hosting a GIVEAWAY of one copy of our new book, Homespun Devotions: Volume Two. Please click here and leave a comment on her blog to be entered into her giveaway!