A guest post! This time from our very own Mitton crew! The middle son had to do a speech for school and this poured out of the junior higher’s brain. I think it is quite profound, so thought I would share it…

We make decisions everyday; some big, some small, but decisions are always there and they always have an effect on the future. Choosing between Mcdonald’s or Tim Horton’s may seem like just an everyday task, but your decisions can change the course of your life, other people’s lives, and ultimately the world itself.

Your decisions affect you whether you realize it or not. Some decisions you make directly affect you, like getting married, accepting a job, or choosing to retire. These are called direct decisions. Direct decisions are choices that are made intentionally to change one’s present self. Some decisions however, affect you indirectly, meaning they were not intended to affect you but in the end you were affected. These types of decisions are often the ones that lead to you being affected in a negative way. For example, let’s say you decide to commit a murder. You, yourself will not be affected by the death of the individual you murdered. You will however, be affected by the punishment you receive for committing the crime. So you inadvertently negatively affected your life through a chain of events. Or, in simpler words, you made an indirect decision that had a negative outcome.

Not only do your choices affect you, they affect everyone around you. Choosing to promote someone, or stealing someone’s wallet, are obvious ways your decisions affect people, but did you know that the things you do alone in your house also affect other people on the other side of the city? For example, let’s say you’re at home and no one else is there, and you decide you’re not going to do the chore your parents told you to do. They’re not there so why does it matter, right? Your parents won’t be home till late that night and you probably won’t see them till the next morning. So you go to bed. Next morning comes and you’re getting ready for school when your mom walks in and starts yelling at you for not doing whatever it was you were supposed to do. You get all mad about it and now you’re almost late for school. You run to school and someone is standing right in the way of your locker. By now your fed up with everything that’s happened in your day so you yell at the kid for standing in your way, ultimately hurting his feelings and making the rest of his day miserable. Now, in this small story you can see just how much your decisions can affect people. The seemingly harmless choices made affected three different people: the mom, the dad and the other student.

Your decisions are powerful. So powerful, in fact, that they can even change the world itself.

Changing the world may seem like something only a few people have done — but the truth is, every single choice that any person on the face of the earth makes, changes the world in some way. We many not be able to see how the world has changed, and the world may not change until we are long gone, but I can promise you that the world will change. It may seem unrealistic to think that {something as small as} you sharpening your pencil will change the world — but all you have to do is look back at history to see how small decisions formed the way our world works today. Teddy Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States. He could have died if he had not decided to put his speech in his pocket. In 1912, Roosevelt decided to put his 50 page speech, that he was preparing to present, in his chest pocket. Later that day, the folded speech saved his life from an assassin’s bullet.

D-day was the most costly, but important, victory for the allies in the Second World War. The allies may never have won however if Erwin Rommel (who was one of the best field marshals in the world) didn’t decide to surprise his wife with a vacation a few days before  D-day. Both of these choices may seem like improbable coincidences that will probably never happen again, but given the amount of choices we all make every day, I say something like this is bound to happen again.

So why does this matter, what do any of the things I just said to you in the last five minutes mean to you right now? It means you should make the right choice. Every choice you make — wherever you are — make the right choice, because your choice can change the world, it can change the people around you, but most importantly your choice can change you!! For better or for worse. It’s your choice.    

             SO? What do you say, my friends? Are you making the right choices? Be encouraged that God is there to help you make those choices. His plan is perfect… and it’s true, we have no idea how our choices may change the world! See you next week!