Making Good Decisions

Ever made a decision about something and within just a few seconds after making it, you’re overwhelmed with regret? I sure have. In fact, it’s happened more times than I would like to admit.

It is not the small decisions I’m talking about. You know, like choosing artificial sweetener instead of sugar, or wearing your blue shirt instead of the yellow blouse or what you should have for breakfast. These decisions aren’t considered critical and probably won’t mean a lot in the long run. But then there are the decisions that can literally have life or death consequences.

These decisions may involve if you should accept an offer to try a drug or take a drink or hide something or go to a particular place or a million other things. Of course, these types of decisions are all pretty weighty issues. In fact, all of these may sound pretty obvious that participating in one of them may very well lead to some personal heartache.

And then there are some decisions in life that fall somewhere in between the seemingly insignificant to those on the more dire end of the spectrum. This type of decision may be one like the kind of persons you should spend time with or accepting a particular job.

As a Christian school, we try to always point folks back to what the Bible says as a first step in things in life. One of the best places in the Bible to start when wondering about decisions to make, is in the book of Proverbs. Mostly written by King Solomon, he provided us plenty of wisdom in this great book. In fact, one of his proverbs actually stated, “Plans succeed through good counsel.” Which is one of the steps you should take when faced with one of the bigger decisions in life.

We’ve compiled a list of steps to take when making some of the tougher, more consequential decisions:

Identify the decision to be made and your goals.
Pray! This cannot be overemphasized. Prayer is an opportunity to talk with the creator of the universe. God wants to talk to us and loves it when we bring our questions and concerns to Him.
Weigh the outcomes of the decision, one way or the other. How does making this decision bring you closer or take you away from your goals?
Ask for counsel! In that same book of Proverbs, Solomon wrote, “in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” Ask someone you respect to pray with you and give you counsel. You’d be surprised at how that will build your respect and relationship with that person.
Pray again!
Make the decision. Then keep track of your progress and enjoy your good decision.