Mentoring #7—Consequence Mentoring

Keep the charge of Yahweh, your God, to walk in his ways … that you may act wisely in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that he may carry out his promise to you. 1 Kings 2:3

“We can choose our actions, or we can choose our consequences, but we can’t choose both.” By choosing to eat the extra piece of pizza, we’ve chosen the result of extra weight. By choosing a passing grade on the exam, we’ve obligated ourselves to the hard work of study that yields the result we desire. King David says to his son, “If you want God to fulfill his promises, then you’ll have to act wisely. In order to act wisely in life’s varying situations, you’ll have to live according to God’s ways.” We use the same system in any OJT training system: If we choose the consequence of being a master mechanic, for example, and we obligate ourselves to follow his way. The trace of God’s way looks like this in the life of Jesus: rejoicing in the Lord with all his heart; choosing to view human beings as valuable; acting in a way consistent with that value; being guileless in every endeavor; sustaining the weak; extending mercy to the fallen; remaining just in his transactions; delighting in God’s instructions. Successful relationships characterize those who follow the way of the Savior—step, by step, by step; and God’s saving acts come to us when we act wisely.

Again, today, O Lord, I commit myself to follow the path of life you’ve set before me, so I can be with you and know fullness of joy.