I'm Prone

Not too long after I graduated from high school my brother told me, “Katrina, you’re the greatest little sister a guy could ever ask for – I never have to worry about you going out and doing stupid crap.” I believe what he was trying say is, “I’m freakin’ glad I never have to worry about you going out, getting smashed, and ending up in bed with some random dude.”

I suppose you could say that I’m prone to making good decisions. I’m not sure why - I just am. Some might argue that it is because of my family upbringing, but both my brother and sister have disproved that theory. I am the only one of the three of us who didn’t think to throw a wild party at our summer cottage on Sand Lake – and my parents even left me home alone there for an entire week my senior year of high school; I certainly had the opportunity.

Others might argue that my tendency to make wise choices is because of my faith. Although I think that’s part of it, and probably most of it, my faith didn’t become real to me until I was in college and I was making good decisions well before then. It’s not that I attempted to be a goody too shoes; I was just, as my mom has stated “a good kid.” And somehow, even with the skinny dipping episode, and our Spring Break trip to Daytona, my graduating class voted me Class Angel. (For the record, they also voted me Prom Queen as well as Most Likely to Succeed.)

I mean, I’ve certainly done some bad stuff throughout my life. Like when I was really little I shoplifted and stole a box of Tic Tacs from the grocery store check-out aisle; they were orange and yummy and my parents never found out. They did, however, find out when I cut the hair off of my sister’s Brooke Shields Barbie Doll. My sister was irate, and understandably so - with Brooke’s new hairdo, there was no hiding the sin that I had committed.

And then there is the one occasion in my life when I did drugs. Our family was living at a parsonage home in Owosso, Michigan at the time. And I hid (or at least I thought I was hiding) under our piano. I still remember popping pill after pill, taking them in like they were some sort of candy. I finished every last Flintstone Vitamin that was in the bottle. I must have been 4 years old; I haven’t touched drugs since.

In more recent years the poor choices I have made and continue to make include not wearing sunscreen, drinking way too much Diet Coke, talking to strangers, and running when it’s dark outside. But again, like I said before, in general, I’m prone to making good decisions.

I bring this topic up because I woke up this morning thinking about a friend of mine, whose kid, at the age of 13, insists on sneaking out of the house to drink and smoke pot with his friends. I have tons of respect for my friend, and I know he is an amazing Dad, yet his kid is doing his own thing. As much influence as he has in his son’s life, he can’t make all his son’s life choices for him.

This is interesting to think about from a spiritual perspective, because the reality is, the way that God set this world up, with free will (i.e. the freedom that we have to make choices rather than to be controlled by God like robots), He can’t, or perhaps better stated He won’t, make us make good decisions. Just like my friend knows what is best for his son, and it tears him up that his son is going his own way…

to be finished...