Alice Louise Waters said: "The decisions you make are a choice of values that reflect your life in every way." Decisions are important and it is well-nigh impossible to live without taking decisions.
However, decisions are dangerous. How many people still regret wrong decisions they have taken in the past. Especially if their obvious ramifications still dog them to this very day. However, we must not torment ourselves when the time to take decisions comes. Rather we need to find ways that help us take the right decisions in our lives.
Opening myself to God in my decision-making process is really wise and beneficial. Furthermore, I need to figure out what God wants me to do. In other words, I want to "discern". Normally I would choose between "goods" such as what to select from the two good things. Moreover, in order to do this kind of choice I need to be open with God. I love him by deeds not simply by words. Lastly, I need to remind myself that there is an ongoing spiritual warfare which is raging on inside me. I have to struggle all the time with my false self, inner compulsions, selfishness, egotistical side, pride, anger, greed, fears, self-doubt, lack of trust, and other unchristian values coming from our surrounding culture.
In order to make a prayerful decision, I need to check myself to see if I have an open mind and heart. In addition, I need to see if, in this decision-making journey, I have a generous spirit that is helping me enlarge my heart without putting conditions on what God is calling me to do in the situation. A prayerful decision implies courage. We know that God, sometimes, might ask us to take on difficult, challenging and risky tasks. Thus, seeking God's will over my own is crucial. A decision totally soaked in prayer is marked by interior freedom. I need to see if my total and deepest desire is that of doing whatever God's will is calling me to do unconditionally.
If I want to decide prayerfully, I need to let the Holy Spirit cultivate within me the habit of prayerful reflection on my own experience. I need to pray daily, putting myself in God's presence in order to listen to what he is saying to me in the interior of my heart. Yes, every day I need to ask myself where I have experienced God in the past day and how I replied. I thank God for the blessings of that day. I also ask God's forgiveness for the times I failed to respond well to Christ's calls during that day. Finally, I end by asking God's help to respond generously to Christ's call to me on the following day.
To make a prayerful decision I must ensure that my priorities are rightly ordered. Serving God, my Creator, Saviour and Lord, has to be my life's ultimate goal. The rest are means. Thus, finally, I should never mix my end of loving and serving God with the means that will assist me in fulfilling that end.
When I feel uncertain or conflicted before taking a decision, I must remember what it is that I want to decide on. Then, I ask God to help me desire his will alone. Thirdly, I pray God to enlighten and move me to seek what is most helpful to God's service and praise. Fourthly, imagining myself giving advice to a person I never met. It is obvious that I shall be giving him/her the best advice possible. Fifthly, I need to evaluate my decision regarding how I would feel about it on my deathbed, or after before Christ my Judge. Would I not choose the course of action which will make me the happiest and most joyful? Sixthly, when not clear what to do I need to weigh the pros and cons of the decision to see which alternatives are more reasonable and decide according to the more weighty motives. Seventhly, I ask God to confirm my decision with signs which show that my decision is heading me towards his service and praise.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap