dailydatewithgod

As a teacher I would start the year off with a specific exercise I learned from a mentor teacher designed to provide students with a different perspective on the power of choice and responsibility in our lives.  I realized that I continually benefited from the reminder.  The students were instructed to complete the following sentence: “I have to ________. ”  Typically they would write homework, go to school, listen to my parents and the like.  It did not matter what they put as long as it was what was true for them.  Then, they were instructed to cross out “have to” and write “choose to.” Immediately they balked and were certain the sentence was no longer true and arguments ensued.  As I look at that sentence today I am reminded of what I would tell the students.  We always have a choice.  We may not like the choices, but we still have them.  I may be choosing to avoid the unwanted consequences of not doing what I perceive as a have to do, but then I am still choosing. Sometimes the most powerful choice is the one to ask God for a new perspective on what I perceive as a have to.