God's Path or Yours?

One of my favorite George Jones songs is 'choices'. The song starts off as "I've had choice's, since the day that I was born". A comically deep sentence. Every day we are tasked with choices from what to wear, what to eat, should I work out or should I study? In all of these choices, there can be multiple outcomes. It becomes a puzzle of analytical mystery. A chess game to the nth move. Most of our choices we make appear to be minuscule and meaningless, but often times we don't realize the impact it has on others.

For instance, I used to dress a little more "showy", wearing crop tops and skinny jeans. Not that it is wrong to wear revealing clothes, but it is more so, what am I causing to others minds? Is how I present myself Godly? My mama once told me a story, completely hypothetical, but could be someone’s reality. We were having a nice lunch out at the mall, where she pointed at some random dude and said “you don't know if that man across the street is struggling in his marriage due to his addiction to porn. Maybe he has been a month sober but him seeing you created a lust in his heart. This lust then caused him to break sobriety and do his non-desirable actions later”. She further explained that it’s not that I did anything wrong. I can’t go fix his marriage by dressing more modest. And I’m not even the cause of his addiction. But just as society likes to say "that triggers me", un-modestly dressed people can "trigger" that persons actions.

I remember one time, one day, I attended a bible study. I said something, that to this day, I still have yet to recall. But whatever I said left such an impactful impression, that a month later, a girl in that study told me how she can't stop thinking of that statement I made. Some things we say or do (even if it doesn't seem important to us) impact people far beyond we even realize in both the positive and the negative. In this case, whatever I said was purely the Holy Spirit speaking through me. I am honored and blessed that God used me as his vessel to speak life into her. But in other cases, it can leave lasting negative impacts. I remember in 6th grade I was in the girls locker room getting changed for PE. One girl came up to me and said “Why don’t you have boobs?” I realize now that it was an innocent question of curiosity… being an athlete, I had a delayed puberty. But at that time, it made me fixate on “how abnormal I was”. It lowered my self-esteem drastically and took years for me to not let that comment affect me.

As Newton's third law of motion states for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Everything we do has a consequence, in science and in faith. I give these multiple examples to come down to this one simple thought, Are the actions you are doing now following and glorifying God’s will for your life or your own? A rule of thumb to live in God’s path, simply try to do good. If you have an opportunity to compliment someone, or maybe give someone a simple smile (which everyone has an opportunity to do), that is showing others “there is something different about that person”. 1 Peter 2:15 says, “For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people”. Spread your seed of light and do not discredit the work the Holy Spirit can do through you, even through the simplest of actions!