How Decisions Are Made

Or as I should really phrase it, how MY decisions are made.

I was thinking about this today when I went into the closet in my home office looking for something and found a big piece of paper that Noelle drew. My thoughts led me to this question:

In all the decisions in my life - major ones, that is - have I made each decision more with my head, or more with my heart?

My answer is really easy, actually. And I can point to the last major decision (besides getting this new job as worship minister) as the perfect example.

In September of last year, we were living with friends. Down in their basement. Which wasn't actually that bad. And we had a good time with them. We had just found out that my position at the church plant I was at was going to be reduced to a part-time position. Our house that we had watched go up before our eyes in Colorado was sold to someone else because our house in Ohio didn't sell. However, even though my pay was getting cut, we thought we could make ends meet because the friends we were staying with offered to pay Debby to watch their three-year-old rather than having him go to a daycare all day. With her salary and my part-time (plus me getting another part-time), we could make it work, with the hope of selling our house in Ohio. All logical conclusions pointed towards staying in Colorado. Although we had a house in Ohio, I had no job outlook. We had made the decision to make it work in Colorado when we first moved there, and this was an opportunity to continue that decision.

One night I got home and my daughter was drawing on a huge pad of paper on an easel. It looked like a house with some things inside the house. I asked her what she was drawing, and she said, "Our house in Ohio, with you, me, Mommy, Minnie (our dog), and Zoe (our cat) inside."

We moved back to Ohio.

And it all worked out.

I wish I could say that all my decisions in my life have been rational decisions that have been well-thought out and reasoned through. But I would have to say that most of them, including the decision to move back to Ohio, have been made with the heart rather than the mind.