CHOICES

“Quality of Life Series”

1/20/05

LEADER:  Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

FROM:   http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_decisions.html

Personally, I know exactly where I’m going, what I’m doing and what I’m gonna do and what I’m not…and as soon as I make up my mind, I’m gonna do it.

                   What are you going to do about it…life, I mean.  Do the decisions you make or don’t make this moment effect the rest of your day, the rest of your life?

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #1

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

                   "Every choice you make has an end result."

                             Zig Zigler 1926 Master sales trainer, author, motivating speaker

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #2

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made."

            Wayne Dyer, Best selling author/speaker

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #3

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice. Not something to wish for, but to attain."

William Jennings Bryan 1860-1925 Democratic party leader & orator

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #4

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve."

Aristotle 384-322 BC

Greek philosopher, student of Plato, tutor of Alexander the Great

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #5

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices."

Deepak Chopra, Chief of staff New England Memorial Hosp, author

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #6

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_choice.html

“When a defining moment comes along, you can do one of two things. Define the moment, or let the moment define you.”

Tin Cup Movie

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #7

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"If you choose not to decide — you still have made a choice!"

            Neil Peart, Drummer and chief lyricist for rock band Rush

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #8

http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/decision.htm
”Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go on.” 

Andrew Jackson 1767-1845, 7^TH US President

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #9

http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/decision.htm
”While an open mind is priceless, it is priceless only when its owner has the courage to make a final decision which closes the mind for action after the process of viewing all sides of the question has been completed. Failure to make a decision after due consideration of all the facts will quickly brand a man as unfit for a position of responsibility. Not all of your decisions will be correct. None of us is perfect. But if you get into the habit of making decisions, experience will develop your judgment to a point where it is better to be right fifty percent of the time and get something done, than it is to get nothing done because you fear to reach a decision.” 

            H.W. Andrews

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  “You Decide”

FROM: Today in the Word, MBI, August, 1991, p. 16.

http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/decision.htm
Former president Ronald Reagan once had an aunt who took him to a cobbler for a pair of new shoes. The cobbler asked young Reagan, "Do you want square toes or round toes?" Unable to decide, Reagan didn't answer, so the cobbler gave him a few days. Several days later the cobbler saw Reagan on the street and asked him again what kind of toes he wanted on his shoes. Reagan still couldn't decide, so the shoemaker replied, "Well, come by in a couple of days. Your shoes will be ready." When the future president did so, he found one square-toed and one round-toed shoe! "This will teach you to never let people make decisions for you," the cobbler said to his indecisive customer. "I learned right then and there," Reagan said later, "if you don't make your own decisions, someone else will." 

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #10

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"The moment a question comes to your mind, see yourself mentally taking hold of it and disposing of it. In that moment is your choice made. Thus you learn to take the path to the right. Thus you learn to become the decider and not the vacillator. Thus you build character."

H. Van Anderson, Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #11

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives, the cumulative experience of many masters of craftsmanship. Quality also marks the search for an ideal after necessity has been satisfied and mere usefulness achieved."

William A. Foster, Medal of Honor winner Okinawa

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #12

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Choice

“As simple as it sounds, we all must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we've been given.”

            Mary Lou Retton, American Olympic Gymnast/Speaker

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #13

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_choice.html

“The roads we take are more important than the goals we announce. Decisions determine destiny.”

            Frederick Speakman, Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  “The Set of Your Sails” POEM By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_choicechoosing.html

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #14

http://www.quoteworld.org/browse.php?thetext=choice,choos,option

"He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end."
            Harry Emerson Fosdick 1878-1969 American religious leader

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #15

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_choice.html

“We are given one life, and the decision is our whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live.”

Omar Nelson Bradley, Chief of Staff, United States Army

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #16

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"Life is the acceptance of responsibilities or their evasion, it is a business of meeting obligations or avoiding them. To every man the choice is continually being offered, and by the manner of his choosing you may fairly measure him."

Ames Williams 1889-?, American novelist & short story writer

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #17

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Choice

“Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.”

            Samuel Clement Stone 1902- American businessman, Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  “Choices of a Redeemed Life” EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=46359&ContributorID=5658

You remember the story of the boy who thought he would teach some sparrows to sing like a canary, so he put them in a cage with the canary, hoping the canary would teach them to sing. In a few days he found the canary chirping like the sparrows. This is always the case, is it not? If we give ourselves to the attitudes and ways of thinking of those around us, we will inevitably do the same things, there is no avoiding it. The only way to help them is to demonstrate a completely different level of life.

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #18

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Choice

“If there are things you don't like in the world you grew up in, make your own life different.”

            David Thomas, Founder of Wendy’s Restaurants

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #19

http://www.quoteworld.org/browse.php?thetext=choice,choos,option

"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves.  One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes...and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility."
Eleanor Roosevelt 1884-1962 American diplomat, writer, US First Lady

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #20

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"Liberty is the right to choose. Freedom is the result of the right choice."

                                    unknown

LEADER:  Are there consequences for every choice made?

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #21

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"While we are free to choose, once we have made those choices, we are tied to the consequences of those choices."

Russell M. Nelson 1924- Religious leader, renowned heart surgeon

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #22

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"God's love for us is constant and will not diminish, but he cannot rescue us from the painful results that are caused by wrong choices."

Marvin J. Ashton 1915-1994 Religious leader/executive/state senator

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #23

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"Every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey the Natural Laws. Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices."

Alfred Montapert 1906- American motivational writer

LEADER:  Do you need some help with your choices.

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #24

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Choice

“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.”

                                    Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865 16^th US President

LEADER:  Some choices are obviously good or evil.

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #25

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"You need not choose evil; but have only to fail to choose good, and you drift fast enough toward evil. You do not need to say, " I will be bad," you have only to say, "I will not choose God's choice," and the choice of evil is already settled."

W.J. Dawson, Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #26

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_choice.html

“Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.”

            Jerry Garcia, Recording Artist “After Midnight”

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #27

http://www.worldofquotes.com/topic/Choice/1/index.html

“Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.”
            Tryon Edwards 1809-1894 Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  Job 34:4
"Let us choose for ourselves what is right; Let us know among ourselves what is good.

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  Joshua 24:15a
"If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve:

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #28

http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/choice.htm
When the author walks onto the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade, all right; but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else comes crashing in? This time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing; It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. 

C.S. Lewis 1898-1963 Christian Author

LEADER:  How do you choose in the face of adversity?

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #29

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"The fire of adversity will melt you like butter, or temper you like steel. The choice is yours."

                                    Unknown

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #30

http://www.quoteworld.org/browse.php?thetext=choice,choos,option

“Pain is inevitable.  Suffering is optional.”

            M. Kathleen Casey, Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #31

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them."

Denis Waitley, American personal development expert

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #32

http://www.worldofquotes.com/topic/Choice/1/index.html

“Demons wait at crossroads attempting to influence our decisions.”
            April Smith, Author, TV writer/producer

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #33

http://www.quoteworld.org/browse.php?thetext=choice,choos,option

"If you have made mistakes... there is always another chance for you... you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down."
Mary Pickford 1893-1979  Actress, Founder United Artists Corporation

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #34

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Choice

“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.”

            Wayne Dyer 1940-, American Psychotherapist, Author, Lecturer

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #35

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_choicechoosing.html

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

            Martin Luther King

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  Ephesians 4:22-32 (ALL TURN TO)

²²that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
 ²³and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,   ²⁴and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.  ²⁵Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.   ²⁶BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger,   ²⁷and do not give the devil an opportunity. ²⁸He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. ²⁹Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.   ³⁰Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

   ³²Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #36

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"ADVERSITY CAN DISTRESS US OR BLESS US The way we use adversity is strictly our own choice, For in God's Hands adversity can make the heart rejoice — For everything God sends to us, no matter in what form, Is sent with plan and purpose for by the fierceness of a storm The atmosphere is changed and cleared and the earth is washed and clean And the "high winds of adversity" can make restless souls serene — And while it's very difficult for mankind to understand God's intentions and His purpose and the workings of His Hand, If we observe the miracles that happen every day We cannot help but be convinced that in His wondrous way God makes what seemed unbearable and painful and distressing, Easily acceptable when we view it as a blessing."

Helen Steiner Rice 1900-1981 Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  Romans 8:28-29

 ²⁸And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
   ²⁹For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

LEADER:  So do we have a choice in our attitude toward any circumstance?

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  “Choose It”  By Steve Goodier

http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon2/choose_it.htm

Two men fell on hard times. Try as they might, they couldn't find work. They heard that a museum was willing to pay $50 apiece for live rattlesnakes so, in desperation, they decided to catch snakes.

Outfitted with a net and basket, they hiked to a remote area renowned for its large snake population. But as they scaled a steep ledge, the rock gave way and they tumbled down the slippery bank -- into a deep pit crawling with rattlesnakes!

One of the men quickly sized up the situation and shouted excitedly to his friend, "Look! We're rich! We're rich!"

Some people see good in anything! And I suppose there's usually a brighter side. Take aging, for instance. As we grow older, our skin turns from satin to cotton to seersucker to corduroy. But, on a brighter side, I'm just glad wrinkles don't hurt! It has to do with how we look at our situation. Like a sign spotted outside a New England shop: "We buy junk. Antiques for sale." Is your attic full of junk or antiques? It's a matter of perspective.

Your greatest power may well be your power to choose. As Abraham Lincoln wisely said, "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." The truth is, we can choose to view many of our problems as opportunities, we can choose to age in body without aging in spirit, and we can choose to be encouraged by the good of life, rather than discouraged by the bad.

It's your point of view! Choose it!

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #37

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"Optimism is an intellectual choice."

Diane Schneider, therapeutic harpist with the Mayo Clinic

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #38

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"Although our inattention can contribute to our lack of total well-being, we also have the power to choose positive behaviors and responses. In that choice we change our every experience of life!"

Greg Anderson 1964-   NBA San Antonio Spurs & Atlanta Hawks

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #39

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"It ain't no use to grumble and complain; It's jest as cheap and easy to rejoice; When God sorts out the weather and sends rain, Why, rain's my choice."

James Whitcomb Riley 1849-1916 Staff of Indianapolis Journal, called ‘poet laureate of democracy’

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #40

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"Others don't make us angry. There is no force involved. Becoming angry is a conscious choice, a decision, therefore, we can make the choice not to become angry. We choose!"

Lynn G. Robbins 1857-1933, American religious leader

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #41

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"You can't expect to prevent negative feelings altogether. And you can't expect to experience positive feelings all the time. The Law of Emotional Choice directs us to acknowledge our feelings but also to refuse to get stuck in the negative ones."

Greg Anderson 1964-  NBA San Antonio Spurs & Atlanta Hawks

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #42

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_choice.html

“It's so hard when I have to, And so easy when I want to.”

                                    Sondra Anice Barnes, Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #43

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"The longer I live the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company . . . a church . . . a home. The remarkable thing is, we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. . . . we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. . . . we cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you . . . we are in charge of our Attitudes."

Chuck Swindoll, Pres. Dallas Theological Seminary 1994, pastor

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #44

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"I believe that words can help us move or keep us paralyzed, and that our choices of language and verbal tone have something — a great deal — to do with how we live our lives and whom we end up speaking with and hearing; and that we can deflect words by trivialization, of course, but also by ritualized respect, or we can let them enter our souls and mix with the juices of our minds."

Adrienne Cecile Rich 1929-  Author/Poet

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #45

http://www.worldofquotes.com/topic/Choice/1/index.html

“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality”
            Nikos Kazantzakis 1883 - 1957

One of the most important Greek writers, poets and philosophers of the 20th century

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #46

http://www.worldofquotes.com/topic/Choice/1/index.html

“How you choose to respond each moment to the movie of life determines how you see the next frame, and the next, and eventually how you feel when the movie ends.”

       Doc Childre, Chairman/CEO of HeartMath LLC

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  “What Kind of Day Shall I Choose”

http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon1a/whatkind.htm

·        What kind of day shall I choose today? Today I can complain about my health, Or I can celebrate being alive.

·        Today I can moan that it is raining, Or be joyful at all that grows from the rain.

·        Today I can regret all I don't have, Or rejoice in everything I do.

·        Today I can mourn everything I have lost, Or eagerly anticipate what's to come.

·        Today I can complain that I have to work, Or celebrate having a job to go to.

·        Today I can resent the mess the kids make, Or give thanks that I have a family.

·        Today I can whine about the housework, Or celebrate having a home.

·        Today I can cry over the people who don't care for me, Or be happy loving and being loved by those who do. I choose to have a good day today !!!

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  “Choices” By Dennis Lawrence  EXCERPTS

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=44073&ContributorID=5455

Sometimes, it’s all we can do to decide which size coffee and what we want in it.  At other times, we can quite easily make decisions that might be life-altering.
However, without question, one of the greatest abilities that separates us from all the rest of God’s creatures is our ability to weigh factors, to recognize different alternatives, and then to make a decision and to implement an action plan toward the successful accomplishment of that decision. As we look back in our lives, we’ve made decisions about where to be educated and what program to pursue. We’ve made decisions about where to seek, or to accept, employment. We’ve made decisions about whom to marry, where to live, whether to buy or rent our homes, whether to lease or purchase a vehicle, what colors to paint various rooms in our homes, or to decorate them with other than paint, what priorities to place on the use of the funds available in our families, how to spend vacation time- the decisions have been many that bring us to who and what we are here today.
From the beginning, people have had to make decisions. Adam and Eve had to make a decision- a choice- to obey or disobey God, and we know the choice they made, and can recognize rather clearly something of the repercussions that have flowed, even to us, from that initial choice of serving self rather than God.

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  “How To Manage Life’s Choices” By Bob Briggs

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=42569&ContributorID=2621

How do we manage the live choices around us?
Consider shopping. The average American supermarket carries around 36,000 items for sale. Crest offers 36 variations of its toothpaste in the choice of size, shape and flavor. Revlon has 158 different colors of lipstick and there are 200 new magazines which hit the market each year although the vast majority of those new editions will fail. Lets be honest, how often have you stood in front of an aisle of choices in the supermarket with a glazed look in your eyes as you were trying to decide which laundry detergent would be right for your clothes? Even at the checkout counter you are faced with choices, paper or plastic meaning how do you want to pay and what do you want your purchase put in.
The choices we make today have an impact on the decisions we will be making tomorrow. They establish a pattern and a foundation for our life. We ask people in the early stages of their life to make choices of careers which will effect their life down the road.

LEADER:  I’d like to suggest five questions to ask yourself when making life choices which that will keep you on the right path and off the road to destruction.

FROM:  “How To Manage Life’s Choices”  ttp://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=42569&ContributorID=2621

1.     Is the choice in agreement with God’s Word?
Reading the Bible, mediating on the writings will enable you to know right choices from wrong.

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  Psalm 25:12

¹² Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD ?

    He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

LEADER:  “How To Manage Life’s Choices”  CONT:

2.     Would I want everyone to know about my choice?

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  Proverbs 10:9

The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.

LEADER:  “How To Manage Life’s Choices”  CONT:

3.     By making this choice, will it help me be a better person?
Probably most of the choices we have to make in life is not between good and evil, but between better or best. 

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  Corinthians 10:23

²³All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable All things are lawful, but not all things edify.

LEADER:  “How To Manage Life’s Choices”  CONT:

4.     Will my choice be addicting?  There are some choices that can dominate a person’s life. What your mind dwells the most on, will inevitably become your God.

5.     Will my choice harm anyone else?

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  Romans 14:12-13

¹²So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.  
  ¹³Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this--not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way.

LEADER:  It comes down to the small choices in life that will determine the depth of your character.

                   And what should guide these choices?

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #47

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

.                       "Unless virtue guides us, our choice must be wrong."

William Penn 1644-1718 English Quaker & political activist

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #48

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"By making choices consistent with eternal truth you will develop righteous character."

Richard G. Scott (1924- Religious leader, nuclear engineer

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #49

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"The Savior shows us that we either choose to allow ourselves to be acted upon from external influences, or we choose to act for ourselves by internal convictions. In each circumstance we will resolve the issue before us by our choice of which source to follow. This is the most basic fact of our existence."

Loyd J. Ericson, Author 

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #50

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny - it is the light that guides your way."

Heraclitus c.540-c.475 BC Greek philosopher

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  “Choices” #2 By Dennis Lawrence  EXCERPT

Our task on earth is really one! It is to choose our eternal home. You and I can afford many wrong choices in life. You can choose the wrong career and survive, the wrong city and survive, the wrong house and survive. You can even choose the wrong mate and survive. But there is one choice that must be made correctly and that is your eternal destiny.

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #51

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_choice.html

“To every man there openeth A way, and ways, and a way. And the high soul climbs the high way, And the low soul gropes the low: And in between, on the misty flats, The rest drift to and fro. But to every man there openeth A high way and a low, And every man decideth. The way his soul shall go.”

 John Oxenham, circa 1530-1580 Author/Sea Captain

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #52

                                http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/choice/

"Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct that life is God's greatest gift to man. . . . Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than any possession earth can give."

David McKay 1873-1970 American religious leader

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #53

http://www.quoteland.com/topic.asp?CATEGORY_ID=21

“All men and women are born, live suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.”

            Joseph Epstein 1937- Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  Psalm 139       (ALL TURN TO)

      ¹O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
      ²You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
         You understand my thought from afar.
      ³You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
         And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
      ⁴Even before there is a word on my tongue,
         Behold, O LORD, You know it all.
      ⁵You have enclosed me behind and before,
         And laid Your hand upon me.
      ⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
         It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
      ^7(J)Where can I go from Your Spirit?
         Or where can I flee from Your presence?
      ⁸If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
         If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
      ⁹If I take the wings of the dawn,
         If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
      ¹⁰Even there Your hand will lead me,
         And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
      ¹¹If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
         And the light around me will be night,"
      ¹²Even the darkness is not dark to You,
         And the night is as bright as the day
         ^(P)Darkness and light are alike to You.
      ¹³For You formed my inward parts;
         You wove me in my mother's womb.
      ¹⁴I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
         Wonderful are Your works,
         And my soul knows it very well.
      ¹⁵My frame was not hidden from You,
         When I was made in secret,
         And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
      ¹⁶Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
         And in Your book were all written
         The days that were ordained for me,
         When as yet there was not one of them.
      ¹⁷How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
         How vast is the sum of them!
      ¹⁸If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand
         When I awake, I am still with You.
      ¹⁹O that You would slay the wicked, O God;
         Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed.
      ²⁰For they speak against You wickedly,
         And Your enemies take Your name in vain.
      ²¹Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD?
         And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
      ²²I hate them with the utmost hatred;
         They have become my enemies.
      ²³Search me, O God, and know my heart;
         Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
      ²⁴And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
         And lead me in the everlasting way.

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  Deuteronomy 30:19

¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,

HAVE SOMEONE READ:  QUOTE #54

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_choice.html

“There has never been another you. With no effort on your part you were born to be something very special and set apart. What you are going to do in appreciation of that gift is a decision only you can make.”

Dan Zadra, Writer/publisher

LEADER:  QUOTE #55

http://www.worldofquotes.com/topic/Choice/1/index.html

Guido the plumber and Michelangelo obtained their marble from the same quarry, but what each saw in the marble made the difference between a nobleman's sink and a brilliant sculpture.
          Bob Kall, Author

LEADER:  It’s your choice!  What’s it gonna be?

LEADER:  Remember this:  “It’s always your next move.”

                                    (Napoleon Hill             1883-1970 Author/Motivational Speaker)

FROM: http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_choice.html

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QUOTE #1

"Every choice you make has an end result."

                             Zig Zigler 1926 Master sales trainer, author, motivating speaker

QUOTE #2

"Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made."

            Wayne Dyer, Best selling author/speaker

QUOTE #3

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice. Not something to wish for, but to attain."

William Jennings Bryan 1860-1925 Democratic party leader & orator

QUOTE #4

"For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve."

Aristotle 384-322 BC Greek philosopher, student of Plato, tutor of Alexander the Great

QUOTE #5

"You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices."

Deepak Chopra, Chief of staff New England Memorial Hosp, author

QUOTE #6

 “When a defining moment comes along, you can do one of two things. Define the moment, or let the moment define you.”

Tin Cup Movie

QUOTE #7

"If you choose not to decide — you still have made a choice!"

            Neil Peart, Drummer and chief lyricist for rock band Rush

QUOTE #8

”Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go on.” 

Andrew Jackson 1767-1845, 7^TH US President

QUOTE #9

”While an open mind is priceless, it is priceless only when its owner has the courage to make a final decision which closes the mind for action after the process of viewing all sides of the question has been completed. Failure to make a decision after due consideration of all the facts will quickly brand a man as unfit for a position of responsibility. Not all of your decisions will be correct. None of us is perfect. But if you get into the habit of making decisions, experience will develop your judgment to a point where it is better to be right fifty percent of the time and get something done, than it is to get nothing done because you fear to reach a decision.” 

            H.W. Andrews

“You Decide”

Former president Ronald Reagan once had an aunt who took him to a cobbler for a pair of new shoes. The cobbler asked young Reagan, "Do you want square toes or round toes?" Unable to decide, Reagan didn't answer, so the cobbler gave him a few days. Several days later the cobbler saw Reagan on the street and asked him again what kind of toes he wanted on his shoes. Reagan still couldn't decide, so the shoemaker replied, "Well, come by in a couple of days. Your shoes will be ready." When the future president did so, he found one square-toed and one round-toed shoe! "This will teach you to never let people make decisions for you," the cobbler said to his indecisive customer. "I learned right then and there," Reagan said later, "if you don't make your own decisions, someone else will." 

QUOTE #10

"The moment a question comes to your mind, see yourself mentally taking hold of it and disposing of it. In that moment is your choice made. Thus you learn to take the path to the right. Thus you learn to become the decider and not the vacillator. Thus you build character."

H. Van Anderson, Author

QUOTE #11

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives, the cumulative experience of many masters of craftsmanship. Quality also marks the search for an ideal after necessity has been satisfied and mere usefulness achieved."

William A. Foster, Medal of Honor winner Okinawa

QUOTE #12

 “As simple as it sounds, we all must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we've been given.”

            Mary Lou Retton, American Olympic Gymnast/Speaker

QUOTE #13

 “The roads we take are more important than the goals we announce. Decisions determine destiny.”

            Frederick Speakman, Author

“The Set of Your Sails”

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

QUOTE #14

"He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end."
            Harry Emerson Fosdick 1878-1969 American religious leader

QUOTE #15

 “We are given one life, and the decision is our whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live.”

Omar Nelson Bradley, Chief of Staff, United States Army

QUOTE #16

"Life is the acceptance of responsibilities or their evasion, it is a business of meeting obligations or avoiding them. To every man the choice is continually being offered, and by the manner of his choosing you may fairly measure him."

Ames Williams 1889-?, American novelist & short story writer

QUOTE #17

“Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.”

            Samuel Clement Stone 1902- American businessman, Author

“Choices of a Redeemed Life”

You remember the story of the boy who thought he would teach some sparrows to sing like a canary, so he put them in a cage with the canary, hoping the canary would teach them to sing. In a few days he found the canary chirping like the sparrows. This is always the case, is it not? If we give ourselves to the attitudes and ways of thinking of those around us, we will inevitably do the same things, there is no avoiding it. The only way to help them is to demonstrate a completely different level of life.

QUOTE #18

 “If there are things you don't like in the world you grew up in, make your own life different.”

            David Thomas, Founder of Wendy’s Restaurants

QUOTE #19

"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves.  One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes...and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility."
Eleanor Roosevelt 1884-1962 American diplomat, writer, US First Lady

QUOTE #20

"Liberty is the right to choose. Freedom is the result of the right choice."

                                    unknown

QUOTE #21

"While we are free to choose, once we have made those choices, we are tied to the consequences of those choices."

Russell M. Nelson 1924- Religious leader, renowned heart surgeon

QUOTE #22

"God's love for us is constant and will not diminish, but he cannot rescue us from the painful results that are caused by wrong choices."

Marvin J. Ashton 1915-1994 Religious leader/executive/state senator

QUOTE #23

"Every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey the Natural Laws. Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices."

Alfred Montapert 1906- American motivational writer

QUOTE #24

 “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.”

                                    Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865 16^th US President

QUOTE #25

"You need not choose evil; but have only to fail to choose good, and you drift fast enough toward evil. You do not need to say, " I will be bad," you have only to say, "I will not choose God's choice," and the choice of evil is already settled."

W.J. Dawson, Author

QUOTE #26

 “Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.”

            Jerry Garcia, Recording Artist “After Midnight”

QUOTE #27

 “Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.”
            Tryon Edwards 1809-1894 Author

Job 34:4

 

Joshua 24:15a

 

QUOTE #28

When the author walks onto the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade, all right; but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else comes crashing in? This time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing; It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. 

C.S. Lewis 1898-1963 Christian Author

QUOTE #29

"The fire of adversity will melt you like butter, or temper you like steel. The choice is yours."

                                    Unknown

QUOTE #30

 “Pain is inevitable.  Suffering is optional.”

            M. Kathleen Casey, Author

QUOTE #31

"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them."

Denis Waitley, American personal development expert

QUOTE #32

 “Demons wait at crossroads attempting to influence our decisions.”
            April Smith, Author, TV writer/producer

QUOTE #33

"If you have made mistakes... there is always another chance for you... you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down."
Mary Pickford 1893-1979  Actress, Founder United Artists Corporation

QUOTE #34

 “Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.”

            Wayne Dyer 1940-, American Psychotherapist, Author, Lecturer

QUOTE #35

 “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

            Martin Luther King

Ephesians 4:22-32

QUOTE #36

"ADVERSITY CAN DISTRESS US OR BLESS US The way we use adversity is strictly our own choice, For in God's Hands adversity can make the heart rejoice — For everything God sends to us, no matter in what form, Is sent with plan and purpose for by the fierceness of a storm The atmosphere is changed and cleared and the earth is washed and clean And the "high winds of adversity" can make restless souls serene — And while it's very difficult for mankind to understand God's intentions and His purpose and the workings of His Hand, If we observe the miracles that happen every day We cannot help but be convinced that in His wondrous way God makes what seemed unbearable and painful and distressing, Easily acceptable when we view it as a blessing."

Helen Steiner Rice 1900-1981 Author

Romans 8:28-29

 “Choose It” 

Two men fell on hard times. Try as they might, they couldn't find work. They heard that a museum was willing to pay $50 apiece for live rattlesnakes so, in desperation, they decided to catch snakes.

Outfitted with a net and basket, they hiked to a remote area renowned for its large snake population. But as they scaled a steep ledge, the rock gave way and they tumbled down the slippery bank -- into a deep pit crawling with rattlesnakes!

One of the men quickly sized up the situation and shouted excitedly to his friend, "Look! We're rich! We're rich!"

Some people see good in anything! And I suppose there's usually a brighter side. Take aging, for instance. As we grow older, our skin turns from satin to cotton to seersucker to corduroy. But, on a brighter side, I'm just glad wrinkles don't hurt! It has to do with how we look at our situation. Like a sign spotted outside a New England shop: "We buy junk. Antiques for sale." Is your attic full of junk or antiques? It's a matter of perspective.

Your greatest power may well be your power to choose. As Abraham Lincoln wisely said, "Most people are about as happy as they make up their mind