Response Ability

“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”  (Joshua 24:14–15, NIV 1984).

Other People’s Musings – The current social paradigm (view of how things work) tells us that we are conditioned to respond in a particular way to a particular stimulus.  How we respond is determined by one or more of the following:

Genetic Determinism – Says your grandparents did it to you.  It’s in your DNA (nature).  You inherited it.

Psychic Determinism – Says your parents did it to you.  Your upbringing (nurture), your childhood experience.

Environmental Determinism – Someone or something in your environment did it to you.

But in between stimulus and response is freedom of choice.  How we respond is not determined, it is chosen.  We have the ability to decide within ourselves how we respond.  Our behavior is a function of our decisions (choices), not our conditions.  We are responsible for our own lives.

From “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey.

My Musings – We are responsible for our own choices.  God has set before us life through His Son Jesus Christ.   We either choose life (Heaven) or death (Hell). It is not determined for us based on nature, nurture or environment.

My Advice – Choose life.

Author: thebrewisamusing

I was raised in a Christian family and my earliest childhood memories include regular Sunday school and Church attendance as a family. I was taught that our Judeo-Christian values were not just a part of our Sunday routine they should be part of our character and influence all aspects of our lives. I was also taught that as important as these values were they could not save us. We must also be “born again” by accepting Christ. View all posts by thebrewisamusing