by Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
Do you like making decisions? Do you have to analyze all the data before you make a decision, or do you just go with your gut?
Maybe you agonize over every little aspect of what to wear, what shoes to goes with your outfit and then what coat to wear once you leave the house. Some have even a hard time picking out toothpaste and when they finally find the kind they like are then so disappointed when that kind is no longer available.
For others decision making is a relatively simple thing. They know what they like and so they just chose the same thing over and over again.
Scientists who study human behavior determined that every adult makes approximately 35,000 decisions each day.
Maybe you are better at making decisions than you thought you were!
You see, for most of us, decision making is routine.
We make the decision to get out of bed, take a shower, brush our teeth and get dressed. For most of us we even get dressed in the same way. We usually put the same leg into our slacks each and every day. We like to sit in the same spot at church or class. We like to park in the same place.
Some studies say that it is actually good for the brain to park in different places so that you have to snap out of the routine decision making and do something different. For many, our basic diet is pretty much the same each day.
Many decisions we make are just routine and really are not bad for us.
However, other decisions that we make routinely can take away the quality of life. Randomly scrolling on social media for way too long. Watching TV until you are in a stupor. Snacking on food without thinking. All of these things are decisions that can hamper the quality of life.
So then there are decisions that can add to our quality of life.
Decisions like each day waking up and prayerfully beginning your day in a time of contemplation of Jesus and His role in your life for the coming day. Contemplating scripture, interceding for others in prayer, asking God tough questions that have bothered you and listening and searching for the answers.
The same scientists who tell us that we make 35,000 decisions per day will tell you that young children only make about 10 percent of that. Maybe that is why Jesus said that unless we become as little children we cannot enter into the kingdom of God (see Matthew 18:3).
Little children have a simple faith that doesn’t require a lot of debate and analysis. They just decide to believe. They have a simplified life with their simplified belief. The is what God is challenging us to have the same type of simplicity when it comes to our walk with him.
Maybe even the simplicity can translate into other areas of life as well and we can simply let God make more of our life decisions as we go through each day.