Choose Wisely

I will go on the record to admit that I don’t always make the best choices. Allow me to give an example. My family and I went out to eat after church a few Sunday nights ago. We were joined by another family whom we don’t always get to see outside of the four walls of the church building.

We had a really good time sitting and talking about our lives. It was nice to have an opportunity to further develop our friendship with this couple. They are really good friends of ours and going out to eat with them was a great decision.

The choice of company was not the bad decision. The bad decision occurred in what I chose to eat. We were at a local fast food restaurant that included not only food but a variety of sweet treats too. As I surveyed the menu, I wanted to avoid the obviously bad choices: burgers and fries. However, even that bit of trying to be good did not prevent me from making a bad choice.

My heart was telling me that a salad would be the best decision, but my head was telling me the picture of the quesadillas with onion rings looked awesome. And after all, this is better for me than a burger and fries. So, I ordered those fantastic looking slices of tortillas, cheese, and chicken. The thing I am not telling you is that I had Mexican for lunch and when I double up on spicy items, my stomach gets very displeased with me.

After we placed our order, we went and sat down. It was nice to catch up with our friends as we waited for our food to arrive. Once we had finished our food, it was late and we all needed to get home. Getting to bed was a top priority because I needed to get early in the morning.

My restful sleep didn’t last too long, close to 2am I woke up with an intense burning sensation in my stomach. Remember, I said that if I double dip Mexican food that it doesn’t agree with me. Now this occurrence of Dante’s Inferno caused me to quickly sit up in bed and blindly make my way to the bathroom.

Somewhere along the way, I encountered another fun filled experience. I vurped. Some of you may not know what a vurp is, so allow me to explain. A vurp is a combination of a burp and vomiting. The kicker is, that you really don’t throw up, it just makes its way up to the top of your throat. This causes you to experience all the wonderful sensations that go along with throwing up, without actually throwing up. Trust me, It’s very unpleasant.

Now I find myself standing over the toilet doing everything I can to not throw up. After what seems like hours, I no longer feel like I going to loose my dinner. However, the wonderful aftermath of tastes and burning feeling is in full affect. I make my way back to bed and spend the next several minutes trying to calm my stomach down and find the perfect position that will allow me some rest.

The entire time I am going through this, a few thoughts are going through my mind. You knew better. You did this to yourself. You are not too smart. There was no point in arguing with myself, I was right. I made a poor choice and now I am suffering the consequences.

The consequences did not end there. I get up early throughout the week and work out with friends. With this lack of sleep and my stomach doing backflips, I skipped my morning workout. This, of course, threw off my normal morning routine and led to me having a somewhat disrupted day.

What is moral to this story? Each day we are all faced with decisions and every one of those decisions have consequences. You need to choose wisely. A momentary experience of pleasure can cause a ripple effect that will knock your entire day (and sometimes life) out of balance.

Having a plan and making decisions ahead of time can help you make wise choices. So, I encourage you to take some time and look at where you want your life to end up. Figuring out your destination will help you set your path to get from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow. With that in hand, you can make a better decision when faced with daily choices.

One last thought, we all mess up from time to time. Don’t beat yourself up too much. Take time to acknowledge your bad decision. Then get back up and keep moving.

What plan are you following for your life?