Don’t Make Decisions Too Quickly

Throughout any given day, people have many opportunities to make decisions. Some of them are well planned out and others are spontaneous and instant. Unfortunately, many people make important decisions too quickly and live with the negative consequences when they could have waited a bit longer, gained a few more facts or listened to some wise counsel and made a different choice – a choice that could have saved them much grief and pain. Here is one helpful principle you can use when making an important decision.

It’s amazing how prone we are to making quick decisions, especially if we really want something badly enough. The Bible says, “Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, and he who hurries his footsteps errs” (Proverbs 19:2 NASB). When we make quick decisions, we rarely get all the facts we need to make an informed choice that is based off of wisdom and not fleshly impulses! One of the best ways to fight against making a quick decision is to sit on the choices at hand for a couple of days before making a purchase or deciding on what to do next. Seek God about the decision and look to Him for peace. Many times our own desires get in the way and it takes a day or two or even more before we are calm enough to hear from God! I remember just over a year ago, I started a lawn mowing business with my brother and we wanted this brand new lawn mower that cost $5000. We were sure it was the right decision, but we didn’t have the money to buy it! We wanted to purchase it on credit and make monthly payments even though we had only two or three clients at the time. Not to mention, we would still have to make payments over the winter months even though we weren’t mowing lawns. This was just not a good decision, but we continued to push forward only to find out we could not get a line of credit for that amount of money. This should have been one of many clues it wasn’t a good idea, none the less, we contacted family members to cosign with us including my mother. She eventually told us she would not help us put the lawn mower on credit because she felt like it wasn’t a wise choice. At the time, this was very painful and disappointing, but looking back a year later, I am no longer mowing lawns. I am working in a completely different field of work! I wanted something so badly that I was willing to push past reason and common sense to try and get what my flesh wanted. Thankfully, the doors just didn’t open. Instead, my brother and I worked hard with what was in our hands and eventually we raised enough money to purchase a great used lawn mower that met all our needs for less than a fifth of the cost of that brand new one! We started our business debt free. Learn from me. You can make wise choices simply by not making a decision too quickly. Don’t impulse-buy or step into something you have not investigated or gathered enough information to move forward with confidence! And remember to invite God into the center of your decision. He will give you peace to move forward in the right direction. You can make wise choices!