How to decide. (What school? Who to marry? What to study?)

While on holiday, my teenage daughter asked my husband how to know for certain that you are making the right decision.

Good question.

Throughout history and throughout the world, people want to know. We want to make the best decision today, based on the best outcomes tomorrow.

If only we could foretell the future.

And some do, believing that they can harness the spiritual forces to see into the future. But the Devil does not know the future. Why then does fortune telling exist? Because the moment that a person invites demonic authority, these forces can manipulate and orchestrate a future similar to the one "foreseen". Similarly, horoscope reading can have the same effect - an apparent future foretold becoming a reality. But these ways of knowing the future is demonic and ungodly and will leave you with more uncertainty and fear and concern than ever before. (And possibly a few nasty friends. Just saying.) And that is no way to live life. 

There is a better way to approach the uncertainty of the future. 

And that is by trusting in a God who already knows the future. 

Our God, is omnipotent and omnipresent, but He also exists outside of time! He is already in our tomorrow.

We need to learn to trust Him. Trust Jesus. Because the truth is that the best decision today, in our opinion, might not bring the best outcome tomorrow. And the worst decision today might not result in the worst outcome tomorrow.

And therein lies the beauty of trusting God. We can relax. We can breathe deeply and enjoy time's progress, even when we make wrong decisions, we can be CERTAIN that a good God is working all things (yes, ALL things, even uncertain things) for our good... when we trust Him and lean into Him. 

We can embrace not knowing everything because our Lord does. What a relief! How freeing!

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

― Corrie ten Boom

Thanks Liezl, this sounds all nice, but lets say for instance, you need to decide which school to send your child to? How do you make this decision? I am so stressed out!

Practical application:

Look for three green lights

1. Inner witness - do you have peace? Peace is found in Jesus. Scripture refers to Jesus as the Prince of Peace. Therefore prayer is the first place to start when facing a big decision.

2. Is it in line with God's Word? Is it going to be a sin to send your child to school? And the answer is no. God wants us to teach our children and prepare them for when they leave home.

3. Confirmed witness or peace with those with whom you are walking in accountability. If you are a teenager, does your parents have peace? As a wife, does my husband have peace? Does my pastors have peace about it?

My testimony: 

My daughter started high school last year. We have very good schools in our neighbourhood, and a little further. My heart was set on sending her to a private school some distance away but my husband was not convinced. He wisely pointed out that the excessive driving or extra costs of public transport would not fit in our budget and would strain our physical and emotional capacity. We settled on a choice between three schools in very close proximity. We had peace about all three schools. I do not think that any of these three would be a bad choice. We left the decision to my daughter and when it came time to make the "big" decision, it was really simple: there was only one school out of the three that had the subjects she wanted to do. She is now in her second year at the school and loving it!

Learn from me: What we think is better, might not be God's best. See a school as a school. Not more, not less. Don't make too much of something. See it for what it is. And yes, it has to be within your means. We all live with boundaries. Some have bigger space than others, but everyone has boundaries. And when we accept our God-given boundaries -financial, emotional, physical- then we can learn to live within these. I am very grateful to my husband for his wise advice. I would've been driving in traffic for over an hour! And another hour back! And lastly, don't be too hard on yourself: if you made a wrong decision, ask God to help you turn it into a right. Sometimes, it might mean sticking it out, other times it might mean taking your kid out of a specific class or school.  In any decision, there is no guarantee. 

Our good and perfect decisions are not our guarantee. 

Many look for a 'sign" as a guarantee that they made the right choice. Even during Jesus' ministry on earth as a man (being fully man and fully God), many wanted to see a sign in order to believe. But we are called to live by  faith and by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. 

He is our guarantee.

Eph 1:13-14

And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him, so we would trust Him alone. (Italics explanation added.)