What Are My Options?

What are my options? The question means different things to different people. To the cancer patient it means chemo or radiation. To the stock broker it means buying or selling. To the high school senior it means getting a job or going to college. To the woman served with divorce papers it means fighting to keep the marriage or fighting to keep the house. To the climber of corporate ladders it means staying put or relocating the family to another state. At some point in our lives most of us have asked ourselves what are my options?

Ever so often the outcome that results from the decision we make when options are presented can be life transforming. In April of 1985 our family was trying to find a new church home having moved from East Point to Fayetteville. Dad wanted to visit one church and I wanted to visit another. Dad said, "come on son go with us, you may meet the girl of your dreams." So I went with mom and dad not all that happy to be going. As we sat there waiting for the service to start my eye caught sight of a girl several rows in front of us. But she was with another guy, obviously her boyfriend; so I didn't take the time to meet her, much less consider that she was a candidate for marriage. "Oh well dad", I said as we left, "so much for dreams coming true."

Two months later I came home from work and mom informed me that she had received a visit from that "pretty girl" and her friend. They had been assigned our names for church visitation. They had tried to stop by the week after we had visited their church, but we weren't home. So they came back for a second attempt two months later. "That's great mom, but that guy is her boyfriend." "No" mom said, "He was her boyfriend, but he is moving off to college and they have decided to just be friends and I think you need to ask her out."

Long story short, for once in my life I listened to mom asked that "pretty girl" out and two months later we were engaged. Nine months after that we were married. Twenty two years later she is still a "pretty girl" and I am a believer in dreams coming true.

What's the moral of the story? When you think going to church is an option ~ choose to go. When you think visiting others is an option ~ choose to visit! And when mama says you need to ask that pretty girl out ~ BY ALL MEANS ASK! You never know! Your dreams just may come true.