Chance or Choice?

​At the risk of starting a debate, I have to say that I have the cutest dog. Here, let me prove it:

One-minute faith hack

​Meet Rugby!
 
Rugby is a mixed breed known as a Bernedoodle. His mother was a Bernese Mountain Dog and his father, a Miniature Poodle.
 
Rugby is the most adorable ball of fluff you've ever seen. People stop us all the time to tell us, "He looks just like a stuffed animal!" And he does. He loves to play, adores contact with people, thrives on playtime at the dog park.
 
When you mix two breeds, you take your chances on which traits the pup will inherit. One of the physical traits Rugby inherited from his mother is the Bernese Mountain Dog fur which is silky soft and water resistant. From his father, he inherited the curl of a poodle and the blessing that he also doesn't shed -- a must for someone allergy-ridden like me.

​The similarities to his parents don’t stop at his appearance. One of the behavioral traits he inherited from his mother is the tendency to chew on wood. (Who knew that was an inherited trait, right?) This can be very annoying when you have lined your yard in trees or filled your flower beds with wood bark. As a puppy, he loved to get a good hunk of wood and shred it all over the grass (if we were lucky) or the carpet (if we weren’t). From his father, he inherited a tendency to bark at people when they come to the door.
 
All of us have traits we have inherited from those who came before us, whether by DNA or the conditioning that we learned in our youth. Sometimes those traits are like soft fur that we cherish and enjoy. Other times, they resemble tendencies that call our name like a juicy piece of wood in the backyard...pieces of ourselves that we try to ignore or wish would go away.
 
For example, did you learn from your parents to love and forgive others? To embrace people and build them up? Or did you perhaps inherit an attitude of picking and choosing who deserves love or mercy? Did you inherit a positive self-esteem that made you feel you could conquer anything? Or did you absorb traits of fear and timidity? Did you inherit an attitude of faith and possibility? Or one of skepticism and doubt? Did you learn to face your challenges with faith and optimism? Or with a handful of Oreos and a box of tissues?
 
The truth is, regardless of the situation in which you were raised, you likely learned some things that you will want to hang onto and pass onto your own children, as well as things that you struggle to overcome. How do I know this? Because you are human. You families were human. The good news is that choosing the life you want to lead…in spite of your conditioning…is the birthright of all of God’s children.
 
It's true that we are heavily affected by both the literal and environmental genes we grow up with, and though we can't change the height of our stature (see Luke 12:25) or the texture of our hair, we can change our attitudes, our beliefs, our actions. And the reason we can do this is because God made us each agents unto ourselves. That means that, as adults, we cannot blame anyone or anything for our own thoughts, words and actions.
 
On the door leading to our garage, I have two magnets. One reads:
"Whether your life is happy or not, is your own choice" - Nick Vuyicic
The other:
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." – Thoreau
 
These two magnets represent one of the greatest lesson I have learned on my path of intuitive eating, and that is that I have complete control over my own life.
 
We loved and adored Rugby when he was a rambunctious puppy, but that didn't mean we were content to let him chew up our trees or bark at guests just because his genetic conditioning told him to. With time, patience, and practice, he was able to learn that wood was not one of the basic 4 food groups, and that guests enjoy him much more when they are not afraid of him. We taught him these things because we want him to be happy, and he will be happiest when he is healthy and has a positive relationship with those he comes in contact with each and every day.
 
I'm grateful for all of the positive things that have been passed down to me in my own genetics and conditioning, and I am deeply grateful that I can choose to overcome any conditioning of my past that does not serve me. I am striving to improve upon the life I was given, just as I hope my children are working to improve what was handed down to them. (Good luck, Kids!)
 
The truth is, none of us will be able to overcome the conditioning of our past if we leave it up to chance. Those decisions will have to be made through conscious choice. Each and every day you have the choice to leave your future up to the conditioning and external circumstances you find yourself in, or to choose your own pathway to happiness.
 
So…what will it be? Chance…or choice?