Our Choices vs God's Choices, By Leah F.

Our Choices vs God's Choices

By Leah F.

You are playing outside, and your brother comes out, and says he wants to play with you. You start playing with him, but then he starts cheating. You are really mad, so you decide in your mind you will never play with him again. Later next week, you brother comes to you, and says he is sorry, and asks you if you want to play again.
(a) you stay mad at him, and you say "no." You then shut your door in his face.
(b) you say "yes," but hold an inside grudge.
(c) you forgive him and go play.
So what choice do you choose? You know which one is right, but do you go through with it? God's choice is always the right choice, but being the sinful humans we are, we tend to ignore it, and go with our own choice. If someone does you wrong, you don't want to risk him doing wrong to you again! But if God wants us to love our enemies, doesn't that imply that we should keep on loving our friends? Forgiveness is important. As it says in the Lord's Prayer, " ...forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." God wants us to forgive. The bible also talks about how if we ask for forgiveness, God will forgive us, then forget our sin. If we ask for forgiveness, our sins don't matter anymore, and they don't count against us. But when we don't accept an apology, or we say we do, but we don't forget it, we are going against our God. Ephesians 4:32 says, " Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." We need to forgive, your life will be better that way.
You are at school, and people are looking at you, and whispering. At first you don't think it is anything, but then through the rumors you hear your name. Later, you ask your friend what is going on, and she tells you that someone who doesn't like you is spreading rumors about you. You tell a teacher, and the girl is really mad at you. The teacher makes her apologize, and you can tell she doesn't mean it. But later, she comes and apologizes, saying that she was wrong. She also asks if you could be her friend. You can tell she means it this time.
You:
(a) say "no" then start spreading rumors about her
(b) say "it depends," and that if she wants to be your friend, she will have to prove she is worthy.
(c) say "yes" and bring her into your circle of friends.
Once again you know the right choice. Whenever someone does you wrong, you want to do wrong back, or show them how it feels. But God doesn't want that. Also, if someone apologizes, you should trust them. Yes, sometimes people will only apologize because an adult tells them to, but you can tell when they really mean it. But you might be wanting to know, what do you do if you can tell they don't mean it? This is a very hard question for some people. Do you just say, "You are not really sorry."? Do you just ignore them, you don't know what to say? What God probably wants us to do, is accept the apology. If you show them your Christian state, you can witness to them how we should act, even if they already are a Christian! But we know that God would want us to pray for them. You should pray that they would be truly sorry, and maybe they will come up and really apologize to you!
One more:
You are at your school. Everyone knows you are a Christian, but no one really cares. Then one day, you are at your desk reading a Bible, when someone comes up, and tells you that your religion is wrong, and you should stop reading, and give up Christ. You tell the kid "no," and he/she stalks off, angry. Soon, everyone seems to be spreading lies about Christianity. Not only is the kid spreading rumors about you, but also us bad-mouthing your religion, which also mean Jesus. After a couple weeks, the rumors seemed to stop. You see the kid who started it, who is acting different. Instead of telling you to stop reading your Bible, he or she asks you which story you were reading. Confused, you tell the kid, them leave. Later you hear from someone that the kid went to church, and is now a Christian. Later, the kid comes up to you and tells you that he is now a Christian. Can it be true?
You:
(a) tell the kid, "no, that isn't possible." Then leave
(b) ask him some really challenging Bible questions, and if he/she gets one wrong, you say he isn't a Christian.
(c) You thank God, then forgive him for what he did.
You know which choice is right, but do you do it? God's way is the right way. So don't let your way win the match.