Choose the right way

When things go wrong, don't go with them!

Making better choices

I watched a one-minute lesson on the Tennis Channel last night delivered by a sports psychologist. He was pointing out the importance of not letting negative emotions take over one's thinking while playing tennis.


As he noted, if you hit a shot poorly and react with, “Oh bummers, what a disappointment,” your attitude sags, your body sags, and your next shot suffers even more. How well you think determines how well you play.


He further explained that the polished pros don’t let negative attitudes take over their thinking. They stay positive, look for the improvement to make and stay up.


It was a valuable reminder that thinking governs our game. Our game does not govern our thinking.


I applied the direction to the larger lessons of life.


What happens around us does not determine our state of mind. What we choose to believe and accept determines our perspective.


For instance, if a rude driver cuts in front of us on the highway, we are not obligated to get upset. That’s a choice we make. If an employee fails to follow through with an assignment, we are not required to fuss and fume all day. That’s a choice we make. If we run short of funds before our next paycheck arrives, we are not under pressure to panic. That’s a choice we make.


Likely, we all have opportunities to make better choices!


What the material senses see and hear does not determine what we think. What we think determines how we react and respond to what we see and hear.


When our thinking is informed by spiritual truth, we make better choices.

So, today, I’m going to practice listening better to God first when faced with challenges, and draw a spiritual conclusion about what I see and hear rather than be tempted to react out of fear or worry. It should improve my “game” of life immensely! How about you?

To choose or to decide

A reader who is a dad with a son in Iraq, has been blogging about his son’s time away from home.

Yesterday, he wrote a fascinating piece on the difference between choosing and deciding when it comes to selecting a candidate to vote for in the upcoming presidential elections. I’ll think you’ll enjoy his revelations. There is a big difference between choosing and deciding, as he points out.


Click here to link, “To choose or decide.”

The "choose or decide" content starts with the second paragraph.

Making choices

I had a thought provoking conversation with a friend today about making choices.

“What motivates the choices you make in life?” She asked.

“I make the choice that I believe is the most spiritually progressive.” I answered.

“What do you mean?” She came back with.

I thought about big decisions I’ve made over the decades.

For example, the three years I wrestled with staying on the family farm or going into the full-time practice of Christian Science. I wanted to make the transition, but feared a lack of income, being frowned upon by family members, and dad’s likely negative reaction to my leaving the family business. But after all the agonizing, fretting and worrying, the bottom line question became, “What will be the spiritually progressive step to take?” The answer was obvious. Leave the farm and devote yourself full-time to understanding God and healing others with that understanding. I left the farm. It was one of the best choices I’ve ever made.

Another major decision I wrestled with 20 years ago, was whether to get married or not.

I fell in love, but worried about how my life would change if I made a life-time commitment through marriage.

All the freedoms that come with bachelorhood would vanish, I worried.

After considerable mental wrangling with these fears and arguing the pros and cons of the “Should I get married?” debate, the bottom line question became, “What will be the spiritually progressive step for you?”

Framed this way, my choice was clear. I felt that marriage would be the progressive step for me because I would grow faster in working out the problem of being with this woman I loved than without her. I’m happy to report 20 years later, that I made the right choice.

Simple day-to-day decisions can also be framed in the context of “What is the spiritually progressive thing to do?”

For instance, my son accidentally broke a toy his friend lent him over the weekend. He wanted to replace it, and pronto, with a new one that he would pay for himself. It was the end of the day. I did not want to go shopping, so I told him we’d get to it later in the week.

But then I thought, “What kind of example am I setting?” He wants to immediately rectify the mistake, and I’m delaying his rapid response. Should I be a bit less selfish here, and take him to the store now? What was the nearest right thing to do spiritually? I asked myself.

After a bit of prayer, I set my personal desire to stay at home for the evening aside, and told him we’d go right after dinner. The trip was quick and easy. My son is happy, and his friend has a new toy to replace the broken one. And I feel good that I helped him quickly remedy an unfortunate incident he felt badly about.

It can be hard to know what to do when faced with hard choices, but if we look carefully enough at the pros and cons and weigh our decision in the scale of “What is the spiritually progressive step to take?” the best choice will become clearer. When we want to do the spiritually right thing, God's help in making the best choice will become apparent in the form of our own sound reasoning.

I hope this story makes some choices you have to make a bit easier!

“Every step of progress is a step more spiritual.” The People’s Idea of God, Mary Baker Eddy.

Always an open door

“When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”

~ Alexander Graham Bell

Choose to live

Yesterday, a new friend visited me in my office to learn more about Christian Science. When our meeting was finished, I gave him the December Christian Science Journal which is filled with powerful testimonies of spiritual healing. He went home and started to read the magazine, and soon emailed the following comment which I thought you’d be interested to read. He gave me permission to share.

I read the story about the gal with pneumonia. She was very close to unconsciousness and her husband told her she had to choose Life…she
did, and that choice helped her to be healed.

This reminded me of some 15 yrs ago when I got a call from mom that dad was in ICU and not expected to live. I took a flight to Seattle and was in thoughtful prayer about what to do. Before we landed, I had received an answer.

I went to Virginia Mason hospital and went to dad's bed. He had two Christmas tree stands, as they were called at that time, holding 15 different bags and medicines that were going into his arms. I ignored all of that paraphernalia and quietly whispered to dad. "Dad, I have a message for you."

He awoke, and in a whisper asked what the message was.

I said, "You have a choice. It is your choice to live.”

That was radical thinking for him at that time and place, and he was surprised to hear what I said.

I again affirmed to him that this was true. I went out and told mom the same thing. I wasn’t sure if he would live or die, but knew for certain that life had not been taken from him and that his agency to choose was intact.

The next morning he had only three IVs in his arms, and the next day he came home. This was a dramatic change from what everyone else in the family was expecting as an outcome.

Hmmmmmm… I think the Principle we are discussing as taught in Christian Science has been in my life all along. I just hadn’t recognized it as such.