The Right Thing

Have you ever struggled with doing the right thing?  Sure you have, you are human, right?  I sit here tonight tapping away at my keyboard pondering the results of doing, saying, and honoring the right things.  In fact, the right thing for me, and truth be told, my family too, may not always be the best thing for another, especially if that destroys a longtime relationship.  Perhaps that is going a bit too far, too fast.  So here, let me break it down. 

Life is full of situations.  In fact, each and everyday starts with one.  You have the option to wake up or sleep in, put a smile on or a frown, be kind or be a jerk.  I know, you are probably thinking something like, "wait, these are choices, not situations."  I, in return, would capitulate and agree, BUT have you ever thought about the result of that choice?  That result is the situation.  So, I go back to my original question, have you ever struggled with doing the right thing?

Do you put your family first or someone else's?  Do you do something for the safety of one you love, regardless of the outcome for the other, or because of the outcome for the other?  There are things in life that aren't as black and white as they seem.  Things that make you wade, deeply, in shades of gray.  These are things that no matter how much you long to share the sordid details with others you know, for the sake of peace, you have to keep it confined to those who must know, and to those alone.  Yes, it is a tough choice. 

However, in light of those things that are deep and murky, there are those that are so seemingly easy, but they are, in essence, just as difficult.  For instance, does one eat the extra peace of cake, drink the last glass of wine, stay up that extra hour reading a book, or run another errand even when knowingly it will make one late for a previously scheduled engagement with a friend.  Sure, on the other side of the fence those seem like no brainers, but what are they to the one addicted to food or drink, the one who loses them self in a good book because their reality is so bad the book removes them from it, or the one who suffers badly from poor judgement and equally poor time management skills?

While it may seem to be a no brainer to do the right thing when it comes to taking care of one of your own, why is doing the right thing hard when it comes to yourself?  I wish I had all the answers.  In fact, I think it is due to not having them at all that keeps me typing furiously on this keyboard in the hopes of getting my ever-thinking mind free of the options and thoughts that create the situations in the first place.  Then, only then, when I get to the end, and I feel I have lost perhaps the only reader this one blog may have, I remember, that my problem isn't a new one.  It is as ancient as the days. 

How?  Because James tells us in the 17th verse of the 4th chapter that, "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them."  So, I ask, if it is that easy to know the consequences, why not do the right thing(s)?  Oh, that is the hard part.  What is good and pure and right is not always easy, and what is easy is not always good and pure and right.  So I leave you, dear readers, with one thought: aim for what is good and pure and right; seek the truth in all things and remember that each action has an equal reaction.  So, go forth, chose your own adventure, and may it be the right one.

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