LizChatter

As a child, I wasn't a cronic fit thrower but every once in a while when things didn't go my way I could put on quite a show. When one of these show-stopping performances ensued, my mom would firmly take hold of my arm and with a low, almost other-earthly voice she would say to me, "I am NOT going to have fit-throwing in this house!" I would get some sort of "punishment meets the crime" consequence, recollect my wits, do some sort of recompence and life would move on. Today I began to remember dear friends that I haven't seen for some time. I spent several moments trying to recall why we lost touch. Some fell into the "Life Events" category: high school and college graduations, career and geographical moves, marriage or divorce, etc. Others were in the "Different Life Choices" category: prison (for reals), addictions, leaving the faith, etc. Then others sort of fell into this weird category that I decided to call "Fits and Throes

The thought occured to me that God may be democratic in nature... I came to this idea by musing over the realization that God made us free will agents. He gives us choices. He also gives us consequences, but He allows us to choose what we do/don't do. We choose how we live. As a fallen creation we try to force ourselves to make the best choices by removing the bad ones. Take me for example. I just love the taste of carbs and high fat foods. I cringe to admit it but... Yes, I like McDonalds. Just the other day I said to myself, "Life would be so much easier if they would outlaw McDonalds." There you see me wanting to avoid being faced with having to decide to skip McDonalds and going to Sweet Tomatoes instead. Hmmm. This causes me to pause and wonder how many other things in life I've "outlawed" just because I don't want to be forced to choose otherwise. A real conviction is to not mind being faced with alternatives. Or to be faced with alternatives and c