Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled A Choice was written by Katera Patton.

A few weeks after the death of a dear friend, I spoke with her mom.

I was hesitant to ask how she was doing because I thought

it was an inappropriate question. She was grieving. But I pushed aside my reluctance and simply

asked how she was holding up. Her reply, listen, I choose joy. Her words ministered to me that day as I struggle to push beyond some unpleasant

circumstances in my own life, and her words also reminded me of Moses's edict to the Israelites

at the end of Deuteronomy. Just before Moses's death and the Israelites' entrance into the promised land, God wanted them to know that they had a choice.

Moses said, I have set before you life and death. Now choose life. They could follow God's laws and live well,

or they could turn away from him and live with the consequences of death

and destruction. We must choose how to live too. We can choose joy by believing and trusting in

God's promises for our lives, or we can choose to focus on the negative and difficult parts

of our journeys, allowing them to rob us of joy.

It will take practice and relying on the Holy Spirit for help, but we can choose joy,

knowing that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him.

Today's our daily bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Deuteronomy

chapter 30 verses 15 through 20.

See, I set before you today, life and prosperity, death and destruction.

For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him,

and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws. Then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God

will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away

and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,

...