Last week I made this decision:

I am choosing not to be frustrated by my children. Instead, I will model love, understanding, and patience.

That is quite a decision. I can’t say that I always modeled it perfectly. However, I did have many instances where this decision impacted the way I related to my children. I found myself pausing to remember that my children are precious but not perfect, and that many times I was the cause of the behavior  that I found so frustrating.

Choosing to model love, understanding, and patience instead of becoming frustrated was very freeing also. I was freed from the guilt that my frustration would inevitably bring in its train. This freedom brought peace to our home. My children became more cheerful and contented.

Like I said, I wasn’t perfect. I failed a few times. But I remembered my decision in the midst of failure, and chose to repent and ask forgiveness even of my children, then move on to correct the wrong done.

This is definitely something I want to continue to practice until it becomes a habit!

Here is my decision for next week:

I resolve to make a plan for checking email and being online and to claim victory over wasting time online.

This is a big one for me lately, especially since I have an iPod. I will share with you the plan I formulated and how it worked next Monday.

Now it’s your turn. What decision are you making this week? If you made one last week, share how it affected you and those around you? You can link to a post about it, or just share in the comments below. Here is more information on how the link-up works.

Have you ever made a decision that affected your entire life? Of course you have. Probably lots of them.

For me, the decision not to go to college has shaped who I am as a person in a very powerful way now. I don’t have a school debt to pay off. I don’t feel like I wasted my time in college learning stuff I’m not using. That was a big decision for mew and one I’m happy I made.

But there have been other smaller decisions that I have made that also affected the course of my life. Little decisions about actions or thoughts that I made, almost without thinking, have molded who I am as a person in much more subtle ways. Like whether I picked up something I saw laying around; whether I made my bed every morning or not; whether I got upset when things didn’t go my way, or sent up a prayer for grace and smiled instead.

I’ve been watching a seminar lately that has been teaching me a lot about the power of the decisions that I make in my life. And it is having an impact on my daily life. I wish I could summarize it for you, but there is so much that I think you really should just go and experience it for yourself.

The best part is, it’s free! That’s right. You can watch the seminar online for free. And the second-best part is that it is short. That is, each day’s session is short, 15 minutes or so, plus 5 minutes in a workbook afterward. Even the busiest person can find 15-20 minutes a day for self-improvement–and if they can’t, something’s wrong!

He’s not exaggerating. So here is my suggestion. Click on this banner and go sign up for the seminar:

When I got to day 12, I was inspired to try something new on my blog. I have been learning about making decisions, and I wrote down 5 decisions that I want to make in my life. Then I thought, What if I could have a link-up here, so that others could share their decisions, and we could support each other and learn from each other? So that’s what I’m going to do.

Every Monday I am going to share with you how the decision I made the week before affected my life, and then share my new decision for the following week. Then I’m going to have a link-up here so that you can post a link to your blog if you blogged about your decision. If you don’t have a blog, you can just post it in a comment. But please don’t start until you get to day 12–even if you take 4 or 5 hours and do each session one after the other–or you won’t understand what is going on.

My decision for this week that I am sharing is a decision regarding my emotional state. You know, we choose our emotional state; no one can force us to be angry or frustrated or anything. So here is my decision for this week:

I am choosing not to be frustrated by my children. Instead, I will model love, understanding, and patience.

Next Monday I will share how this decision affected my week.

Now it’s your turn. What decision are you making this week?