Choices That Bless Our Lives

It is a hard, cold fact: our lives take on a particular shape and pattern based on the choices we make.  

I cannot count the number of choices I make on any given day, but I know that choices shape my day.

Whether I exercise, eat clean foods, engage with my husband, write a blog, or keep my commitments — each choice adds to or subtracts from the shape of my life.

Though not all my choices carry the same weight, when I consider the choices I’ve made over the course of my life, it makes sense how I’ve ended up in the shape I’m in. 

While on vacation last month, my husband and I visited Redfish Lake, a popular tourist spot in Idaho. We sat on the shoreline, dunked ourselves in the cold water, and ate our picnic lunch.

Then when it was time to go, and as I gathered up our belongings, I heard someone say, “Excuse me…beautiful woman in purple.”

I looked down at my purple swimsuit and concluded that someone was talking to me.

Two young women, in bikinis, whom I did not know, walked over to where I stood and asked, “How do you stay in shape?”

Surprised, embarrassed, and flattered all at the same time, I gave them a short answer, “I’m a yoga and Barre instructor.” 

The long answer would have included that I stay in shape by biking, running, swimming and eating unprocessed foods. 

The discipline we commit to shapes us. 

But choice shapes more than just my body. It shapes my whole life. Every day there are a hundred small forks in the road and I get to choose which fork to take. 

There are times in life when I’ve experienced circumstances beyond my control that made me feel like I didn’t have any choices to make. The death of a child, a rebellious teen, and someone’s hurtful opinion of me. Yet, I still had the choice to respond with bitterness and hard- heartedness or with curiosity and the humility of someone who knew there was something to learn. 

So when I stood on that shoreline, flattered and a little embarrassed, what those two young women were really asking — without knowing it — was “how do you keep making choices that bless your life?”

And the honest answer is: because I get to. I stopped treating my choices as chores and started treating them as blessings. Every good meal I choose, every hard workout on my bike, every time I sit down and write a blog — these aren’t obligations. They’re proof I still get to make choices that bless my life.

Why Bother?

Why bother making choices that bless our lives? Because we’re blessed with the choice to. And a blessing left unused is just a wasted blessing.