Last Tuesday was just one of those days. It started out in typical fashion. I was headed to work, thinking through my day when I noticed the display panel on my car read “no phone connected.” At the same time, I saw the perfect place to turn around. With breaks squealing, I whirled my car around and headed back home. I called Scott on my watch and began telling him all the places to start looking for my phone. The whole time I was giving him directions, I distinctly remembered putting my phone in my purse before I left. As Scott looked in all my usual phone forgetting spots, I then and only then thought to look in my purse. I was almost back to the house by now when what do you know? I had my phone with me the whole time. If I would have only stopped to think before I reacted and whipped my car around, I could have saved myself 15-20 minutes that morning.
While my day was uneventful, I had one task to accomplish Tuesday night. Print our 
Christmas letters and stuff them in the envelopes. There is a little more involved than it sounds. You have to adjust the print to match the outline of the stationery. As I thought I had everything lined up perfectly, I noticed one line began with “I went to Denver.” I couldn’t imagine why I would have typed such a statement. I did’t go to Denver by myself. I quickly, without thinking or reading the statement in context, changed the I to We and printed 87 copies of our Christmas letter. As I was stuffing envelopes, Scott picked up the letter and began reading it. He got a puzzled look on his face and read out loud. “Scott and we went to Denver???” See, the words Scott and were on the line above and I didn’t notice them. The sentence originally read Scott and I went to Denver, but I changed the I to we. I now faced the decision of whether to send out the letter with the terribly ugly mistake or head off to Hobby Lobby. Well, we ended up going to three Hobby Lobby’s that night to find enough of the right stationery that matched the cards. Again, if I would have taken only a brief second to read the entire sentence before I hastily made the change, I could have saved myself a couple of hours of grief.
I just want to say for the record there are an equal number of times when I amaze myself with really wise decisions. These times I give credit to God, but it is proof I am not a complete idiot 100% of the time. However, when those embarrassing decisions are made, I just want to scream because the mistake could have so easily been prevented if I would have just stopped for 2-3 seconds to think. Now the examples I have written about tonight have been with little consequences, but this isn’t always the case. If we don’t stop and think, pray or seek Godly counsel, we can easily do the same thing with bigger, life changing decisions.
Take Esau for example, he was convinced he was going to starve so what was it going to hurt if he gave away his birthright. Do you think he really thought that decision through? Sometimes we are so blinded by our problem, we can’t think clearly. We let the problem be so big, we don’t look for the best solution. We just look for the quickest solution. In Genesis 12 Abram was fleeing a famine. As they entered Egypt, he became concerned that he would be killed because his wife Sarai was so beautiful. With the fear of death staring him in the face, he makes a horrible decision. He asks Sarai to lie and say she is his sister. You know the rest of the story. Since Pharaoh thinks she is single, he takes her into his house. Really, you are going to ask your wife to lie so you won’t be killed. Again, fear was guiding the decision. Not trust or faith.
I was so mad when I thought I left my phone at home, I just whipped my car around and headed back. Esau was so hungry, he wasn’t thinking past getting the immediate need of hunger met. Abram was so scared, he put both of their lives in danger. All of these situations had other options. I just needed to look in my purse. Esau could have fixed his own meal. Abram forgot honesty is always the best policy.
At this time of year, There are plenty of problems and fears to go around. It could be the desire to buy that perfect Christmas gift that causes us to spend more than we have or the length of the Holiday to do list that influences us to skip our devotion or take short-cuts at work. Maybe you have desired to be accepted by others to the point that you sacrificed your principles or just as Abram in the face of fear, dishonesty seemed much easier than the truth.
I pray each day that not only will I represent Christ in everything I do, but that I will make wise decisions that keep me in His will. I need Jesus to save me from myself because my decisions are dangerous.
View From My Shoes 