A Myriad of Choices

As a young man I was determined to set my own course and make my own choices.

Even in that regard, growing up in an alcoholic family had more of an impact on my life than I would understand until much later. But at some point I began to experience a slow realization that I was allowing myself to be controlled by inherited behaviors that were just below the surface - behaviors that were common to children of alcoholics.

Those behaviors can derail your best intentions and your choices if you don’t recognize them for what they are and what they are doing. Now, I know we live in a day and age when people want to blame everything on their up bringing. I am not doing that.

I am just saying that we need to recognize that we don't fall off a pumpkin wagon into this world as adults without any learned behaviors, history or internal influences. Our parents and families affect us more than we are willing to recognize or even want to admit.

But thanks be to God we all still have a choice. We make that choice each day. And those collective choices that we make this week, one at a time, can either lead us to peace and contentment or they lead us to sadness and resentment.

But we make them one... choice... at a... time.