I love buffets! Don’t you love buffets? All the choices! I especially love the huge salad bars with at least 45 options of toppings for your lettuce. I never have most of those things at home, so a nice mound of chopped veggies prepared by someone else—now that’s a deal!

One of the things I love most about our awesome God is that He offers us so many choices! Good choices. Right choices. He has so many righteous options for us to choose every day.

Christianity is far from the “don’t-do-this-don’t-do-that” religion that some make it out to be! The Lord is so creative and loving and generous. Imagine how many beautiful fruit trees must have been in the Garden of Eden! So many choices! He only said “No” to one tree—only one tree in the entire orchard. All the other trees were “Yes” options.

Our Heavenly Father never allures us to turn from the many sinful temptations of the world by offering one plain, boring option of choosing right. No! He is not difficult to please. In fact, He is so easy to serve. He gives us lots of good options. For example, Philippians 4:8 instructs us to keep right thinking. If I may paraphrase the verse, I feel the Lord is saying, “Choose good thoughts. Choose anything that is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report. Choose a thought that has virtue or praise. Choose any of these!” It’s a smorgasbord of good thoughts. You choose!

When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, He began by giving no less than nine different categories of people who are and will be blessed. Pick a way to be blessed! This is not exclusive; it’s inclusive. His blessings cover every type of person from all walks of life. There is not a human being that cannot receive the blessings of God. He has a Blessing Buffet!

Ladies, I want to be like Jesus. He gives us SO many ways to please Him. Every personality type can please the Lord. He makes it easy to love Him and draw close to Him. I want to be that way, too! How about you? I ask myself these questions:

• Do others feel that I am easy to please?

• Do my children feel they have many ways to make me happy?

• Is it easier to make me laugh or make me angry?

• Do I include all types of personalities in my circle of friends?

• Do all people feel that I love them?

• Am I “high-maintenance”?

The last thing we want is for everyone to feel that they must “walk on egg shells around us.” Or that they can never make us happy, so why try? This is not the Spirit of Jesus. The Lord gave us many, many ways that we can please Him. He gave us so many options for choosing right over wrong. Christianity is not confining and smothering. It is true freedom!

Let’s show those in our lives what it feels like to be loved by Jesus. Give them lots of choices!