Small choices can make a big difference

hmm how do I start this?

Decisions decisions......

when I first read the topic, I immediately thought to the talk entitled: A Matter of a Few Degrees by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. In this address he emphasizes the point of careful and well thought out decisions with a story where an airline is off by 2 degrees and consequently crashes into a volcano. Those 2 degrees made a world of difference in the end.

I like to compare this to our daily decisions, while some of our choices are black and white (very defined) others may not seem to make an impact and be kind of grayish. These grayish choices can greatly effect us in the end, just like the 2 degrees! In the moment it makes little or no difference but if you make that gray decision you have just brought yourself closer to another a little bit darker decision. And soon you are way off course! This can be illustrated with a decision tree:

Fred is at the beginning (the star), Fred is new in a group and he is introducing himself to them. lets say he has the choice of:

A: telling a little white lie to make him look better.

B: telling the plain old truth

now lets evaluate:

If he made choice A:

since he told something that is not true, he now has to lie whenever the story comes into question if he wants to keep the false status.

So now he has another choice:

1: keep the false status
2: tell the truth

now chances are he is going to choose 1 because he doesn't want to look bad and it is an easy choice. Telling the truth is hard and he has to back out of whatever lies he has told and he most assuredly is going to look bad. So he's probably going to end up telling another lie.

If Fred made choice B:

since he didn't lie he has no need to keep up any false status. And he has increased his self-esteem and character by saying no to lying.

Later on Fred is faced with another decision, this time more serious. Fred sees something in the lost and found that he really wants! But he knows it is not his. He also knows he can have it if he just lies to the clerk saying it was his.

Fred can make choice + or choice - which will he choose?

Well if we are talking about Fred A then he is going to know that he can pull it off and since he has been lying all the time it makes it easier. But really he is just conditioning himself to be okay with lying and stealing. And next time it will be easier to make the wrong choice.

However if we are talking about Fred B he is going to know that he turned down a lie once, so he can do it again. And he will know that the next time he is faced with a choice!

Do you see where this would lead? One decision, just like 2 degrees can make a huge difference.

So now your wondering How do we avoid this?

• Check Yourself! Whenever you are faced with a decision big or small make sure it is in line with your goal (whatever it might be)

• Counsel with God in all your doings (Alma 37:37)

• Be Humble and ready to receive Gods advice

if you make a wrong decision. Don't worry, that is what the atonement is for. Make a point not to make the same mistake and carry on.

God knows you better then you do, he knows whats best for you! I cant stress this enough. Always counsel with god in every decision. I bear my testimony that I know this to be true.