A woman and her husband interrupted their vacation to go to a dentist. “I want a tooth pulled, and I don’t want Novocain because I’m in a big hurry,” the woman said. “Just extract the tooth as quickly as possible, and we’ll be on our way.”
The dentist was quite impressed. “You’re certainly a courageous woman,” he said. “Which tooth is it?”
The woman turned to her husband and said, “Show him your tooth, dear.”
Have you ever noticed that some people like to make decisions for other people? When we make decisions for others, even if those decisions are best, we are handicapping them from learning their own lessons. Once we become the decision-maker for them, we are forever destined to follow them around continually making all their decisions, because they never grow up enough to make their own wise decisions.
Who do you know that makes decisions for others?
Tags: control, decision, humor
Presidential candidates spend months in the limelight striving for attention and support. Presidential candidate wives typically just follow along. But once a candidate gets elected, his shadow becomes “First Lady”. She is then sought after for interviews. And, historically, First Ladies tend to be very wise women indeed.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, once made this searching statement: “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words. It is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”
Wise King Solomon said it like this: “How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver” (Proverbs 16: 16).
Do you agree with Eleanor? Do you believe it is fair to judge a person’s philosophy of life on the choices he or she makes?
Tags: choices, decision, Roosevelt
Former President Ronald Reagan once had an aunt who took him to a cobbler for a pair of new shoes. The cobbler asked young Reagan, “Do you want square toes or round toes?” Unable to decide, Reagan didn’t answer, so the cobbler gave him a few days.
Several days later the cobbler saw Reagan on the street and asked him again what kind of toes he wanted on his shoes. Reagan still couldn’t decide, so the shoemaker replied, “Well, come by in a couple of days. Your shoes will be ready.”
When the future president did so, he found one square-toed and one round-toed shoe! “This will teach you to never let people make decisions for you,” the cobbler said to his indecisive customer.
“I learned right then and there,” Reagan later said, “if you don’t make your own decisions, someone else will.”
There are decisions we have to make everyday. Some are easy, but some a more difficult. Freedom of choice is valued highly in America. This reminds me of the scripture: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
When can you remember someone else making a decision for you?
Tags: choice, decision, Reagan