The Rain Coat

Storms, in my Arizona home, are rare and wonderful events.  A couple of years ago, during a particularly bad thunderstorm, I took the day off and drove the girls to and from school.  I was watching all the children through the windows of my car as they walked on their way home.  I saw most of them with raincoats and umbrellas.  Some of them had their rain coats opened, some of them were dragging their coats behind them, and some of them had them tightly shut against the wet weather.
They knew the path to take.  It was traveled every day.  Some wondered along it, easily distracted by the novelty of a spring storm. They stopped to investigate anything that caught their interest.   Some of the children wondered and stomped through every mud puddle they could find, until they came forth from them filthy and covered with grime.  Some of the children walked around the puddles and never ventured into them.  Many of them just could not resist the temptation of getting just a "little bit" wet.  They would put the toe of their shoe into the puddle and swish it around a little.
Interesting isn't it?  To watch children and the things that they do.  They are ever a lesson in agency and accountability to me.  They made their choices about the mud that day and so do we.
We are just like all those children walking a path in the rain.  We can choose to walk into or out of the mud as we journey through life.  Some of us are easily distracted from the path.  We wonder around and try different things without ever finding those things that matter most.  We lose our way in the mists of darkness and sin.  We choose to venture off the path that leads to eternal life and choose the one that leads to the large and spacious building instead.
Some of us will try the "little things" and just put our toes in, never understanding why we feel unclean from that point on.  Mud can be so hard to get off of us, and so is sin.
Some may stomp through the mud of this life and cover themselves in it.  They only want to have fun right this minute.  They never understand that their loving Heavenly Father has so much more in store for them if they would just repent and follow Him.
Some dawdle along, sure that there will be tomorrows enough to live their life righteously.  They can choose to do what they want now, and repent tomorrow.  Many of them learn to their sad dismay that tomorrow seldom comes in quite the way we thought it would.
Some of us wear our "Whole Armor of God" like the children wear their rain coats.  We wrap it tightly around us and allow it to be a shield and a protection to us.  We chose to avoid the temptations and sin of the world, knowing that even a small taste can have serious consequences for our spirits.
All of life is filled with choices.  It is up to us to choose the path that we would travel.  We may not be able to choose the obstacles we face, but we can choose our destination and keep walking toward our goal.