God gave me . . . but

God gave me eyes, but I must choose to open them.
God gave me ears, but I must choose to listen.
God gave me hands, but I must choose to work.
God gave me arms, but I must choose to embrace.
God gave me legs, but I must choose to stand.
God gave me feet, but I must choose to walk.

I am not a robot.  I am not a doll.

God gives me strength and wisdom, these gifts are only useful if I choose to use them.

No matter what is going on around me, I am not tossed to and fro by chance.  I must make a choice.

I can profess that God guides me, but if I make poor choices it doesn't matter.

As the road forks ahead of you, you are allowed to choose.  You have the power to choose love, to choose compassion, to choose kindness . . . or not.  You have the power to choose patience, to choose understanding, to choose to reach out . . . or not.  You can be given all the gifts in the world, but if you choose not to use them, they will be useless. 

As I share my story with you, I celebrate my choices.  I celebrate each moment when faced with a difficult fork in the road. In a moment when I could choose to keep walking or choose to stop, I chose to keep walking.  I celebrate the moments that tried to take me down, but my choices kept me moving.  I celebrate the strength I found to keep living during the moments when I simply wanted to lay down and let life go by me.

All my strength came from my Daddy, but I still had to choose to use it. 

Overcoming obstacles, rising above pain, becoming stronger and victorious is accomplished one choice at a time.