GOD BLESSED US WITH THE POWER OF CHOICE

Sir,

God gave us the power of choice, and that is what sets us apart from other creatures. The choices we make in life are important because they frame our future. From the time we came to the stage of accountability in life, we have all made a lot of choices and decisions. Some of them we are not happy with, while we are pleased with others. We may not have a choice on who should be our parents or where we should have been born, but we can exercise the power of choice over many other things in life.  

Choose

We can choose who to marry, the career we want to pursue, the friendships we want to embrace etc. In the context of effective living, the friends we choose are very key. Friendships are a vital part of social living, successful living and key to becoming a useful citizen. I know choosing a good friend is not an easy task because of the weaknesses of human nature. This is the reason why most of us find ourselves in unhealthy relationships which jeopardise the quality of our future. Since the friendships we embrace have the power to positively or negatively impact our future, we need to choose right friends.  Life and society will usually offer us a variety of friendships, so we must be able to differentiate between a friend and a flatterer. A friend is one who esteems, respects and intimately associates with you. It is a person you know very well and regard with affection and trust.

Cultivate

A good and great friend is one who is able to cultivate and bring out the very best in you. They will always bring the gift of encouragement. We need wise men and women around us. Whenever we retreat into our comfort zones, we need friends who will challenge us, and call us out to greater exploits and effectiveness. When we look at a mother eagle and its eaglets, we see a clear picture of how a disturber sometimes operates in our lives. Usually the mother eagle tears up the soft nest to expose the sharp thorns that bring discomfort to the eaglets.
Due to the intensity of the discomfort, the eaglets are forced to leave the nest and learn to fly. The mother eagle trains and develops her young by frequently pushing them out of the nest and then catching them in mid-air until they become skilled flyers. Just like an eagle, you were never meant to stay in the nest of your past, you were created to sour into the clear or cloudy skies of your great future.

Transparent

Truthful friends are open and transparent as they know how to speak the truth in love. They know how to exhort and rebuke so as to keep us on the right track. These are friends who are willing to also be vulnerable with us; they are true friends, who know our weaknesses and issues and still believe in us and refuse to walk away from our lives.  These are friends who cover and protect us during seasons of trial. When others walk away, these will remain. When choosing this kind of friend, we must do it slowly and very carefully. When God helps you find this kind of friend, make sure that you try by all means to keep them. We must not be quick to break away from such friends. Proverbs 27:6 reads, “The wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”  We must always remember this.

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