How Much Does Your Decision Weigh?

How often do you think about the repercussions of your decisions before you make them? Do you consider its ripple effect? Or how it will pertain to your loved ones? You should. One decision (that is a tiny decision to you) could ripple into a decision effecting thousands of people. For the good… or for the bad…

Let’s take a classic example, Adam and Eve. One decision on Eve’s part to disobey God and all of mankind is suffering long-term now. She invented the term “long-suffering”. (Thanks Eve! – Not!). If she had not disobeyed God, this world would be full of harmony, no labor pains, no laboring to make money, nothing! It would be a graceful, eloquent, a beautiful world with everyone in existence. Scripture says:

Genesis 3
¹⁶ To the woman he said,“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.

How would you like for God to come down and give a direct discipline to you because of your decision? Ha! I don’t think any of us would like that. But put some thinking into the decisions you make before you make them.

EXAMPLE: A decision to cheat on an exam may seem harmless because you are only going to do it that once… But your teacher catches you. Okay, so maybe you are the only one who gets a zero for a grade because YOU cheated. What if you aren’t? What if your teacher decides the entire class has to retake a different version of the test that 4x’s as hard? How do you think your classmates would feel? They would be FURIOUS because of your decision. YOUR decision has now affected your entire class…

Okay, the example is cheesy but you get the point. Your decisions whether you realize it or not are affecting your friends, family, people around you and if it ripples enough people you have never even met. One decision to try to do good in one area could detriment family, friends and others in another area. Just be wise in the decisions that you make because they all intertwine. Your decision rarely ever truly ONLY affects only you.

Tough love: Proverbs 5:21
Mark well that God doesn’t miss a move you make; he’s aware of every step you take. The shadow of your sin will overtake you; you’ll find yourself stumbling all over yourself in the dark. Death is the reward of an undisciplined life; your foolish decisions trap you in a dead-end.