You Choose

Yesterday while I was working I was getting really frustrated about this wedding cake I'm doing for Saturday. Around cake number 90 I just wanted to cry, I had been icing and decorating cakes for hours and was only half done. You know those times in life where you feel like there's got to be more to life than THIS?! Well, let me tell you, it's obvious that there's more to life than frosting cakes and making pink buttercream roses, but in the moment I felt like there was no end. I was stuck in a pit of tiny cakes. It was like Daniel in the lion's den only Libby in the midget cake den! Anyway, to make a long story short I had a horrible attitude. I realized that it was my own choice what my attitude was and I could either enjoy the time alone to pray and focus on my amazing piping skills (ya know, maybe build up my finger muscles some more or somethin...), or I could be grumpy and live just to get home. Along the same lines, we have a choice every day to choose Jesus. Yeah, we're saved and we "live" for God, but do we truly live every moment to please Him?

It is our choice to wake up every morning and say, "Jesus, today I choose you." What does this mean? It's the process of dying to ourselves daily. Choose Jesus, meaning when a situation comes your way and it's easy to be irritated or grumpy, sad or depressed, think of all the truth there is in the promises of God! He promises He will never give us more than we can handle (I Cor. 10:13). He promises He will always be with us and provide a way (Psalm 31:15, I Cor. 10:13b). We choose our attitudes.

Last fall was a really difficult time in my life. I don't think I ever remember crying so much as then, I mean when you feel so heartbroken you can barely breath....it's really like the life has been sucked right out of you. But then there are other times when you are so incredibly happy that all you can think about is that special someone or that exciting event coming up! But there is a similarity in both extremes, that we have the choice to choose God no matter what the circumstance. Whether you're overwhelmed with joy, or in the pit of despair, you can either focus on yourself and how happy or sad you are, or focus on God and praise Him because you're happy, or praise Him because you know He's going to bring beauty from ashes. So last fall was a time in my life where I was truly heartbroken, but it was in that time that I started to truly realize that I had to decide. And I praise God that I chose Him. I recognize now that my decision then led me to a much closer, much more intimate relationship with Jesus today. I fell in love with Jesus all over again, and it was all because of the choice I made. I chose my attitude. You can choose your attitude. Joshua 24:15 says, "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.....But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." If serving God in your attitude doesn't sound fun to you then well....go ahead and serve yourself and see what happens. But tonight I choose Jesus. I hope you do too.