May 24th Greetings! I have been away for a few days, in Oregon on a speaking tour, but combining it with visits to family. It was enjoyable all around. We put a lot of miles on the car and a lot of words spoken and heard! Really glad to be home, however. It’s been 2 weeks since I last wrote, so I hope all has gone well with you, and you are enjoying Spring…if in fact it has arrived wherever you are! I have been preparing for a sharing time in Winlock, Washington on June 8th, and am very much looking forward to that event, a Women’s Spring Breakfast. In the process of working on what I feel God would have me talk about to the women, I have been looking back through some of the segments of my book, “Signposts”, rediscovering some of the truths I have learned. One in particular stands out to me, the subject of “CHOICE”. It was part of my devotional readings as well this week, and when God puts a certain thought or truth before me more than once, I know there is something important for me to see. So here it is! These verses in Deuteronomy 30:19-20 reminded me. “1 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days;” And the importance of the choices we make zoomed to the forefront of my mind. After I was so sick earlier this year down in Arizona, someone said to me, “You have to choose to do what will bring you back to health; if you don’t choose to follow doctor’s orders, exercise and drink more water, basically you are choosing NOT to live.” It stunned me to look at my behavior in that way, but it is true. Thus, as I am pondering how to share this truth with the ladies next month, it strikes me that the way to succeed, the motive for all behavior and all service, the way to maintain a true and vital relationship with God is this: “Choose life…by loving the LORD your God.” And that is done by obeying Him and clinging to Him. Every step of our individual journeys is determined by our choices. We have been given, divinely, free will. We can choose our way, but we cannot choose the consequences. It is one or the other, blessing or cursing. And it is set before us every moment of our lives. What will we choose? It is a serious decision. And it is food for thought. See you next week. Love, Lois