Choosing

Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me. Psalm 43:3

I was at a Chosen Women stadium event where Anne Graham Lotz had been scheduled to speak a year or more ahead. That evening she brought her daughter to the podium and introduced her to the nearly thirty-five thousand women.

Anne and her daughter had had a scheduling dilemma to solve. Mom had been scheduled to speak the same night her daughter was to graduate from Baylor University. As they shared how they had prayed and weighed the decision, the women in the stadium rose to their feet and gave the daughter a standing ovation. Her graduation would have been memorable, no doubt, but not as memorable as a stadium packed with women standing to their feet spontaneously and giving her a standing ovation!

There are times when your calling, your family’s needs, and many other responsibilities will not fall into perfect order or timing. You will have to make some tough choices. How do you make those choices?

Pray: Ask God to give you a listening heart and observant spirit. Ask God to pull back the curtain of heaven and give your heart and spirit a glimpse of his priorities.

Listen: Talk with your children, your spouse, and your family. Try to listen without lobbying one way or another. Try to read between their emotional lines.

Research: Find out as much detail as you can about all the options. Things that don’t seem to be possible sometimes become possible as you gain more information. Or, at other times you will realize that one or the other is more important.