Map of Common Sense

“If you don’t change the direction you are going, then you are likely to end up where you are headed.” ~ ~John Maxwell ~

Whatever happened to good old common sense in this old world? Did it go out with the 60’s? Perhaps the 70’s stopped it from going any further or was it the 80’s that demolished it? As much as we like to blame the changing century’s and years for what is going on we only have one person to blame and that is ourselves.

Common sense tells us if we don’t change the direction we are going, then likely we are going to end up where we are headed. Problem is a lot of people don’t realize where they are headed. A lady I knew once told her daughter if you don’t deal with your daughter’s attitude now when she is five you are headed for big trouble. The daughter failed to see it coming but grandma could tell and what she predicted came true.


Perhaps our problem is also the fact that we lack real direction and vision. We can’t see where we are going because of the blurred vision we often use to guide us there. We stubbornly figure we can get where we are headed without the consequences others have faced when they got there. For example when our daughter was in High School they had over five deaths over a period of time of teenagers drinking and partying. It didn’t matter when the first one died after all, “that kid didn’t know what they were doing, it won’t happen to me” was their thinking.


Eventually kid number two died the same way and kid number three and so on. All of which could have been avoided if they would have stuck with the concept of “Oh, if we don’t change the direction we are going with partying like we do we will likely end up exactly where they did.” No, that didn’t pertain to them. They thought they could beat the odds in front of them.


Life isn’t a card game or a gambling board to play with trying to “beat the odds.” The fact that you reap what you sow pertains to all of us. If we go down the route of anger and bitterness we will wind up in further anger and bitterness situations. If we go head down the direction of smoking cigarettes we can wind up getting lung cancer. If we head down the direction of careless spending we will wind up broke.


It doesn’t take a lot of common sense to figure it out. What it takes is the willpower to take the time to look before you leap kind of thing. Years ago as I stood weeping over the harvest I had surrounded myself with the Lord told me, “it may not be what you like or wanted but it’s what you sowed.” Ouch!


We’ve all been given the map of common sense to follow but the problem is some use it and some don’t. We can stand there and hold a thousand maps in our hands but until we are willing to stop and use those maps to show us where we are headed they do us no good.


We are the ones who have the ultimate choice. The spiritual world is no different. We can live our lives is fashion that is pleasing to God or in a manner not so pleasing. Both will reap a harvest but the choice happens back in the sowing process. Indeed we pick what we harvest by our choice of what we sow or plant.


It’s never too late to start over once we see where we are headed. Praise the Lord!

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing