They were in their robes and ready to be done with high school. I was the only thing between them and graduation and the family celebrations to follow.

As the keynote speaker, I knew I better keep it short and do everything I could to make it memorable. I spoke about the choices they all had. As I spoke and watched the parents sitting in the audience, I realized these choices belong to all of us.

We all control the choices we make no matter our circumstance. Those choices often determine our success in life, our impact on others and our impact on the world around us.

Everyone Has Choices

What We Don’t Control

We can’t control a lot of things in life. We can’t control the people we work for or the people who work for us. We can’t control the people we sell to or the people we buy from. We can’t control our spouses or our children. We can’t control the weather or the economy. The list of what we can’t control is endless.

We Do Control Our Choices

We can all control our responses to the things we can’t control. Our choices in the circumstances that God puts in front of us are just that – OUR CHOICES!

I wanted to create a sense of anticipation and hope within the graduates I spoke to that day. That day was not the end of anything. It was truly the beginning.

So I told them,

“No matter what has happened or will happen in our lives we all have a choice. That should give us all hope, whether we are eighteen or eighty years old!”

Four Choices We All Have

1.  My Attitude Is A Choice

I know this to be a fact because I watch 8 year olds play soccer. On any given day, a kid will show up and not be interested in playing. He doesn’t WANT to work hard or WANT to pass the ball to his teammates.

I’ve seen a good coach step in and sit the 8 year old on the bench. When he is allowed to re-enter the game, the young player is transformed. He is sprinting around the field and sharing the ball!

What changed? Did his teammates change? Did the game change? Did the weather change? The only thing that changed was his attitude.

If an eight year old can change his attitude because he chose to, we all can!

My attitude is a choice.

2.  My Effort Is A Choice

Future Hall of Fame baseball player Derek Jeter once said,

“It doesn’t take talent to work hard.” 

Whether math is hard for me or not, I have a choice. Whether the administrative parts of my job come easily to me or not, I have a choice. Whether I love my current job or not, I have a choice.

There are plenty of talented people in the world who choose to not work hard. On the flip side, there are plenty of less talented people who are successful mainly because of their hard work.

Whether I am born with talent or not born with talent, the effort I put in will determine what I accomplish in my life more than my God given talents. I have a choice to work hard.

My effort is a choice

3.  My Future Is A Choice

Many people are anchored in the past. I use the word anchored because they choose to let their past hold them in place.

My past can either make me bitter or it can make me better. It is my choice.

My grandmother died when my father was an infant. His dad then dropped the kids (my father and four siblings) off at a county orphanage and left without a word.

The kids at the county orphanage were looked down upon by others in the town. They were often treated as second-class citizens. Many of those orphans became exactly the type of people others expected them to be.

My father was determined to be different. He made a choice. In fact, he made a series of choices. Those choices changed his future and my future.

He graduated at the top of his class in high school. He got into the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served with honor during two tours in Vietnam, and retired as a general after 41 years in the Army.

My father, General Jim Anderson could have let his past make him bitter. He chose instead to let his past make him better.

We all can choose whether our future looks like our past, or something better.

My future is a choice.

4.  My Parenting Is a Choice

The rest of my father’s childhood is also instructive.

The good news was my grandfather returned when my dad was 6 or 7 years old and brought the three youngest kids home to live with him and his new wife.

The bad news is that six months later, my grandfather decided he did not want his children from his previous marriage any more and sent my father and his two older sisters back to the orphanage.

My father had a choice. He could use his lousy father as an excuse to be a lousy father as well. Many people consciously or unconsciously do exactly that. My father chose to be different than his father.

My father’s story and the multiple Old Testament stories about children who choose to be a different parent than they experienced prove that we all have a choice in parenting.

Each day I have a choice to be just like my parents or something different. My father chose to be something different from his father. I choose to try to be just like mine!

My father’s choice in parenting changed the trajectory of our family for generations. No matter who our parents are, we all have a choice.

My parenting is a choice.

The Bottom Line:

My character is a choice. My character is determined by my habits – my good habits and my bad habits.

My habits start with a choice. Each time I choose something, it makes it easier to choose that behavior again. That is how we all develop habits – one choice at a time.

As I looked out at the graduates and their families before me that day, I wanted them all to know that the choices that lay ahead of them would go a long way in defining their success and their impact on the people and the world around them.

We should all be encouraged by that thought. We should all have hope! Our future is not determined by the circumstances in our lives, but by the choices we make in the midst of those circumstances.

We are all becoming something. Our choices lead us closer to or further from the person we could possibly be.

It’s my choice.

Question:

What other crucial choices in life do we all have?