Five Good Choices

Sometimes I hover in the bakery section of the grocery store. My daughter even snaps pictures on her cell phone of the delectable chocolate-covered strawberries or gourmet cupcakes. No, we don’t buy them. But we do ooh and ahh. To reach my goals I know I can’t load up on desserts.

I’ve come up with a strategy that encourages me toward my goals and you might find it helpful as well. It’s about making five good decisions each day.

So, take weight loss, for example. Say you want to lose ten pounds. What decisions can you make today that will help you get there? What wise choices can you make that will get you another day closer?

For example, breakfast: choose fiber and fulfill a fruit serving, maybe add a little protein. That’s one great choice down. Take a mid-morning walk. Choice number two! Healthy lunch, choice three. Kids are having ice cream after dinner, choose frozen yogurt (or a banana)—choice four. No late night treats. Bingo! Number five.

See what I mean? Five wise choices gets you closer. The opposite’s true too, so beware. Say you chose a donut for breakfast. It’s easier to choose to not workout that day. Then lunch rolls around and you have a bacon cheeseburger. Uh-oh, two not-so-good choices. And it snowballs from there.

But with five (or more) good choices, you’ll stay encouraged throughout the day. Yes, I’m on the right track. I’m headed toward my goals. I’m not giving up now.

It all goes back to the wisdom of small choices adding up to big changes over time.

Same’s true with seeking God daily. If you don’t have a daily devotional time, establish one. Dig into His Word. Worship Him. Delight in Him. Make Him a part of every area of your life. Spending daily time with Him will help you grow.

We can’t have those days back when we didn’t choose wisely, so let’s team up with wisdom and choose wisely today. We’ll thank ourselves later.