Your Decisions

The more you love your decisions,

the less you need others to love them.  

We have a little something in out lives called free agency.  That means, we have the responsibility and the opportunity to choose for ourselves.  Have you ever noticed, that when we are choosing wisely, we don't make excuses?  Yet, when we are choosing not so well, we tend to make all kinds of excuses about our choices.  Human nature seems to be to want acceptance even when we know (or especially when we know) that something is wrong.  

I used to have a very hard time making decisions.  I was so afraid that no matter what I decided, it would be wrong.  There was a lot of solid (for me) evidence behind that belief.  As I was faced with trials, I had to learn to make decisions quickly.  It was not easy.  It was not something I wanted to do. But it was very, very necessary.  
Now, I make a lot of decisions.  I make ones at work that people do not like, I make them with the public, I make them with family, I make them with employees and I even make them with the school.  Not everyone likes the decisions that I make.  However, I am learning that when I know it is right, I don't need the approval of those around me.  I just need to be comfortable in my own skin.  
This is what I want my children to learn.  When we have to excuse our decisions, we need to look at them again.  For instance, if my daughter is late getting home;  I say, "honey, what time did you get home last night" (mind you, I already know the answer).  She says, "about 12:15, I know we were late mom, BUT...."  It is the buts that will get us all.
So I am trying to teach them the language of responsibility.  "Mom, I got home at 12:15.  I am sorry.  I know I was late".  Now, it is up to me to decide the punishment for that tardiness, she decided to be late.  She made the choice.  Now she needs to be willing to live with the consequences that go with that choice.
It is the same for all of us.  We choose our own path.  We get to make our decisions.  I really is up to me and if I learn to take responsibility for my actions, than I am less likely to get caught up in bigger and not necessarily better, excuses.  
I learn to love my own decisions.  I learn to stand by them.  I learn to be responsible for myself.  
After all, isn't that what we all want for each other?  And isn't that exactly what Heavenly Father wants for each of us?  What are you waiting for?

1 Nephi 3:7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.