When Is a Wrong Choice Not a Mistake?

Children and adults often insist that a wrong choice was just a bad mistake. An honest mistake is usually linked to confusion, limited facts, or leaving home before being mature enough to establish proper boundaries. Mistakes encourage you to evaluate choices since a choice can be tantamount to violating your conscience.

The Prodigal Son made several bad choices that proved costly. Leaving home before being mature enough to establish proper boundaries for himself made it possible for him to lose his inheritance by reckless living and bad choices.

His mistake was trusting friends to stick by him when his money evaporated. God’s mercy and kindness allow for immaturity and mistakes as well as bad choices, but still reality has to be faced. When forced to face reality, the Prodigal Son recognized his failures and repented. God gave him hope for the future and a new beginning.           

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You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up, then God will show mercy to you.

~Proverbs 28:13 Good News Bible

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A Volcano from Strife and Hatred

Strife and hatred conjoin to form a strong bond locked in aggravation and conflict. Hatred may not be expressed outwardly, but kept suppressed inside the mind, body and spirit. Hatred produces inward striving against one’s values and peace of mind until the pressures from living set off a behavioral eruption.

 

 Hatred may be so controlled that it’s expressed only to oneself in imagined conversations and actions. When hatred is expressed outwardly, it may be restricted to issues totally separate from what caused the hatred. Parents, children, finances, or any number of reasons from childhood onward may be the actual cause of the hatred.

           If you feel hatred at this moment, ask yourself, “What caused the hatred I feel?” It’s time to it let go by turning it over to the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem because hatred is destructive, and you cannot be the person God intended while striving against others and yourself. Repent and do whatever it takes to turn it over to God right now.

Chasing the Winds of Jealousy and Envy

The pursuit of jealousy’s demands is comparable to chasing the wind. Can you imagine someone chasing the wind, trying to capture it for some emotional purpose? Solomon observed that "all labor and all achievements spring from man's jealousy of his neighbors." He added, “This is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” 

Rachel's jealousy pushed her to outdo her sister, win at any cost, even destroying the bond of love that may have existed. Jealousy moves in progressive steps, spiraling ever upward, gaining intensity and power over rational and sensible thinking. When jealousy spirals into rage, turning back may become impossible.

It's critical to get immediate control of jealousy. Jealousy can be managed, so never let the sun go down harboring it in your thoughts and feelings. Acknowledge its presence and root by confessing it, then repent and turn away from it. Seek forgiveness by turning it over to God. He will heal you of this sickness.