Choices

Last week, my family and I visited the San Antonio Riverwalk. It was all decorated with twinkling Christmas lights and glittery trees, and mariachi bands played festive holiday music.

We were expecting the Riverwalk to be crowded this time of year. What we weren’t expecting, however, was the great sea of college football fans.

Our visit just happened to fall on the weekend before the Alamo Bowl game. Everywhere we looked, there were face-painted fans wearing purple and white for Northwestern or yellow and black for the University of Missouri. And you couldn’t even get a ticket for a riverboat ride. The boats were sold out. Entire college bands floated down the river playing their school’s fight songs, followed by entire boatloads of football players.

We figured since we couldn’t actually ride the boats, we’d just enjoy from the sidelines. So when the Northwestern band floated past followed by the Northwestern football players, we yelled, “Go Northwestern!” We became quite popular as the players waved and cheered back at us.

Then, when the University of Missouri band floated by, followed by the University of Missouri players, guess what we did?

My mama didn’t raise no fool.

We yelled and cheered at the top of our lungs for the University of Missouri.

They loved us, I tell you. Our little family was, quite possibly, the most popular family on the Riverwalk that evening.

I love that we didn’t have to make a choice. If I had to choose my favorite college team right now, I couldn’t. Ask me again in a few years. My favorite school, I’m sure, will be the one that offers the best scholarships to our children. Money talks, you know.

But while my choice of college football teams doesn’t really matter, there are many choices I make each and every day that do matter. A lot.

As I think about my new resolutions for my new year, I’m reminded that my goals are pretty meaningless if I don’t back them up with my choices.

Those extra pounds I want to lose? My choice. No one forces me to eat potato chips and chocolate truffles. I make the choices about what I eat; therefore, to some extent, I make the choice about what I weigh.

And what about that book I want to write? That garage I want cleaned out? Those friendships I want to build?

They can become reality, if I make the choices, day by day, step by step to achieve my goals. Otherwise, they will remain exactly what they are – lofty dreams.

(And yes, a clean garage is a lofty dream for me. Have you seen my garage?)

I don’t know about you, but this year, I want to stop talking about my goals, and actually achieve some of them. In order to do that, I’m going to try to make better choices. I know that my goals won’t be met in one fell swoop, but in small steps. Over time. One small choice after another.

Joshua 24:15 “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."