Daily Devotional for September 22, 2014

Deuteronomy 30:19-20
I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.  Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO.  All rights reserved.

Timothy’s kindergarten class is learning about choices.  His teacher has a color system, with some colors equaling poor choices, while others indicate excellent options. The ultimate color is blue...and as Timothy’s mother described it, “I think you have to be close to perfect to get that one!”  One day last week, Timothy got “blue”!  Of course, two days later, he got “yellow” – which equals a warning. I asked him what happened, and he said, “I was too loud.”

I love that these children are learning to take responsibility for their choices at such an early age – and in such a positive manner.  They realize that a lot of what happens to them is of their own doing...that they have options that bring rewards – and some that result in consequences.  They are experiencing the glory of the “highs” and the accompanying returns...and the disappointment of the lows – and their penalties.

Some of us need to go back to kindergarten!  If we ever learned about how much God wants to shower us with His love and blessings – and the correlation between these and our choices – many of us seem to have forgotten. Too often, we see God as Someone who stands over us with a whip and a chair...ready to strike us down for the smallest infraction.  We have such a distorted image of how God operates!

A lot of us fail to see God as the loving, caring, healing Father that He is...Someone who wants to give us only good things – but Who also wants us to have the freedom to make our own choices.  Therein lies the problem!  I can almost picture Timothy stomping his foot and furrowing his brow when he got that "yellow” warning last week.  He was probably so frustrated with himself, because he doesn’t mean to be too loud – he just gets carried away.  Like all children, he often gets caught up in the moment, which is why there is a “warning” color in between the really good ones and those that signify a serious problem.

The GOOD NEWS for us is that God offers us the warmth and safety of His loving arms...via the blood of Jesus Christ for all of our sins. When we give our hearts to Jesus, we know that “excellent choices” will bring us immeasurable blessings from God.  There may be a few “warning” colors mixed in... every day will not be “blue” perfect!  But we can dwell in the land of the “good colors” and experience the healing balm of God’s love, grace, mercy and forgiveness.

Just like the “color chart” in Timothy’s kindergarten class represents choices – and associated results, God has set options and outcomes before each of us. The next step is ours to take.  So how will you choose?


©2014 Debbie Robus

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