I recently received advice on how to make good decisions. If you draw a triangle and write love on one side, wisdom on the next side and integrity on the 3rd, you will have a plan of attack.
I find that there have been seasons in my life where I just made one bad decision after the next. A lot of these decisions came out of fear, pride, or anger. None of them good.
You are blessed if you can recognize it before any real damage has been done. Even hindsight is valuable if you are to learn from it. We are of habit and we can easily into the same snares and traps time and time again. Like Albert Einstein is famous for saying, ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ‘
No judgements though. We all do it. We are all imperfectly perfect. Here is some good news for you though. If you are trying to learn from your mistakes and avoid the bad decisions in the first place they become less and less frequent. There are things I have learned to adjust in my own behavior because I am far from perfect. However, when I slip up, I own it but, I can also notice there is a bigger gap of time from the last time I did.
Getting back to how to make good decisions. Well, besides learning from your mistakes, and actively trying to not repeat them, there is the triangle I mentioned. If you take away any side of a triangle or any corner of a triangle it collapses. This goes with this triangle. When you make a decision if you only have one of the three parts it will collapse.
You need all three parts: love, wisdom, and integrity. Then you can stand confident in the choice you made. Take any part away and it is just not a sound structure.
I know this to be true. I have made decisions for selfish, prideful reasons and said it was for my integrity. I was doing the “right” thing in my head but was I really? Integrity falls flat without the right heart behind it. It is literally a mask.
The amount of people who have done the dumbest or most dangerous things and when asked why they did it use the excuse that they loved somebody, or something is unmeasurable. People are literally in jail right now because of their warped idea of love and the decisions they made because of it.
And wisdom is so underrated. Being wise is so valuable and if people knew how powerful it is they would want more of it in their lives. Wisdom and discernment are attributes that help you grow. But you can be wise and not have a drop of love in your heart. Then it is wasted.
So when you are faced with a tough decision when you have weighed up all the options and come to your final course of action, before doing it or saying it ask yourself is this decision founded in love, wisdom and integrity? If not go back and find a decision that does have all 3 points, and then stand firm in your choice and whatever the outcome may be.
