Collecting Pine

Not long back, i was away for a simple weekend retreat up in the mountains.
One of the evening, i went for a breeze walk along the path where there was pine tree in abundance. Then i had this thought running through my mind, "If Pine = Choices".

There are many pines along the path, and if each of them are decision or choices that we have to make in mind, how would we know which would be the best for our life? The nicest? the prettiest? The fattest? the thinnest? the most bright colour? the darker colour? What if we pick one of it and feel that it is the best, but find other more attractive ones later. Do we throw or abandon our choice/ decision that we have made? do we continue to keep it, but have others as well?

God gave us the freewill to pick and choose what we want most. We are given the freedom of choice in life, it was not set by fate or destiny, it is held in your hands. To know his plan for you (Jeremiah 1:5), you would have to ask for his guidance when face with difficult choices that would make us think for days or even months, which might end up in years of deciding. When we sincerely ask for his generous love and guidance, we can then be more assured of the plan that he has for us.

What would happen if we want something else (the other choices that we are offered), would it offend him and make him angry, which might result in him not guiding us anymore since we have gone against his will, that he has for us. He is a generous and kind heart, slow to anger GOD. He will accept and respect our decisions that we made, but if anything goes wrong, it would be wrong to blame him for the failure, because he didn't create failure, it was OUR own choice, he didn't threaten to take back the life that he has given us despite we not "obeying" his plan. He will still guide us and show us the way for the choice that we have made.

Taking marriage as an example, it is our choice to get married to the person that we have chosen. Therefore divorce should not be happening because it was our own choice and freewill to pick our life partner.

I choose ONE pine during the walk and decided to take that back. After bring it back, i went out for another walk on another path. This path had even more pine, it was even bigger, nicer, and brighter colour. But i have made up my mind of taking only ONE back with me to PJ. So do i take the new choices, or stick with the current pine that i have chosen.

Temptations do come into play when we have many choices, it can come in many forms. I'm sure each and everyone of us has given in to temptations at one time or another.

Chinese proverb has a saying *Flower beside the road r always prettier, but dun simply take it for it might bring harm/ dis-harmony*.

Take your time to chose the right and most suitable, ask for GOD's guidance when the need arise. Be humble and he will show his plans and the best choice for us.