{"id":729,"date":"2015-08-19T16:43:54","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T20:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=729"},"modified":"2015-08-19T16:59:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T20:59:09","slug":"choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=729","title":{"rendered":"Choices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seen on a friend’s<\/strong> Facebook…<\/p>\n

\"Choices\"<\/p>\n

She’s spot on. Over and over again, I see people making bad choices — repeatedly, carelessly, and intentionally. The results vary, from causing a small problem to ruining an entire life.<\/p>\n

My good friend, Rev. Bernie Knefley,<\/strong> writes a regular column that he emails to some of us. I appreciate his perspective and try to tell him so each time.\u00a0This time, however, I really connected with what he said. I post it here with his permission…. and no further comment.<\/p>\n

\n

Choices
\nby Pastor B.J. Knefley<\/p>\n

A lot can be said about choices. They\u2019re happening all the time. Some are good, and some are not. Many affect not just the person who\u2019s making them, but others as well. We don\u2019t often think about how our choices affect the life of others, but they do.<\/p>\n

Taking responsibility for choices is another thing. Many don\u2019t want to do that. Instead they blame others for what\u2019s happening rather than taking responsibility for their choices. Consequences are the result of choices and sometimes they\u2019re not pleasant. They\u2019re normal things that happen when we make choices. Consequences teach us to make better choices. Have you ever noticed how selfish people can be in their choices? Like they\u2019re the only people that matter?<\/p>\n

I got up this morning and told my wife I wanted to take today as a vacation day. I know, how can a retired person take a vacation day, isn\u2019t everyday a vacation? Well no, not really. There are always things to do, places to go and people to see. I have at least two appointments in my schedule today that, although not unpleasant appointments, obligations none the less. I guess my wife didn\u2019t hear me or take me seriously as she\u2019s gone into town to shop. So I decided to write. I guess the vacation day is out the window, at least for now.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re wondering why I\u2019m writing about choices. Simply because I\u2019m tired this morning, tired of having to deal emotionally, physically, and spiritually with the choices of others. Choices that I have no control over, yet affect me anyway. And in these, more than I would like. To make matters worse, they don\u2019t seem to want to take responsibility and accept the consequences that come with their choices. It\u2019s almost as if they think that their choice was no big deal. Sadly, if they don\u2019t get a handle on things they\u2019ll probably make the same poor choices again.<\/p>\n

For me, and you if you\u2019re in the same place, [the solution] is to seek solitude and comfort in his presence. Hence my reason for a vacation day. Sometimes we just need to quiet our surroundings. Think about it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Pastor Steve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seen on a friend’s Facebook… She’s spot on. Over and over again, I see people making bad choices — repeatedly, carelessly, and intentionally. The results vary, from causing a small problem to ruining an entire life. My good friend, Rev. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[41,42,47,46,44,45,43],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-formation","tag-choices","tag-healing","tag-influence","tag-rest","tag-sabbath","tag-sabbatical","tag-vacation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s9XvLb-choices","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":736,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}