Choose My Own Adventure

Recently I sat talking to a friend about a marital spat narrowly avoided with two simple words. Those words were not unusual or magical, but they were defining. "Hey baby" was the pivotal crossroad between an evening of strife and an evening of marital bliss.

For 2008, I am developing four qualities in my life. Self-control is the first of four, so I am studying connected verses. My new favorite is Proverbs 13:3 which states, "Self-control means controlling the tongue! A quick retort can ruin everything."

I had just sat meditating on that verse and all of the ridiculous events that have happened to me as a direct result of my quick retorts. I thought of the hurt feelings, the miscommunication, the drama all because I spewed out a "quick retort". Determined to begin the process of self-control, I chose to just say "Hey baby" to Buddy the other night when I would have normally mounted an air attack. SIMPLY by not jumping into the conversation guns blazing, it changed the course of the entire conversation and consequentially the evening.

See I had a moment of opportunity... a fork in the road... a page turning decision. I could chose page 42 where the heroine exposes the misdeed of her tardy counterpart. Or I could choose page 21 where the hero explains his heroic deed that happened to take all day and thereby make him late returning to the heroine's house.

Each decision we make is just like a choose your own adventure book. This decision takes us to page 51 while that decision goes to page 95. From there your story is never the same. How much different could our lives be if we chose different pages?

Since unlike the books we can't read the chapter and then go back and choose the other route to see if it is better, I want to make my adventure the best I can. So I guess the first step is self-control. And for me in 2008 that looks like shutting up. Who knows what adventures I may find on the next page.