Influential Decisions

Our little dog came running into the room at the sound of a familiar visitor, and when our son saw him, he asked: “Has Scout dropped some weight?” My husband and I laughed, explaining we had committed to each other to put away poor eating practices (fast food, eating out, processed food) last week. Even though we fed Scout only small portions of “people food,” unhealthy decisions also impacted his life.

As always, the Holy Spirit was kind when He gently showed me that our bad daily habits had adversely affected Scout, who depended on us for his welfare. But a few adjustments in menu planning got him and us back on a healthy path.

Bad habits rule us because we yielded to them: “Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.” (Romans 6:16 NLT). Unhealthy repetitive choices, whether food in excess or too little or actions, thoughts, and words unpleasing to the Lord, can quickly become bad habits that affect us physically and spiritually and influence those we care about and the innocent who depend on us for their well-being.

When God exposes something you should rid yourself of, do it at once for your good, those you love, and His glory—yielding to Him breaks the binding chains. Choose to obey God and form edifying life habits; the people we influence will notice and sometimes imitate our good practices like praying and reading the Bible daily, doing kind deeds, etc. Our choices and actions impact our lives and others.