Healthy
Hearts
?Healthy
Homes
by Brenda Yoder, MA,
Counselor and Education & Prevention Advocate for Elijah Haven Crisis Intervention Center
On July 4, we celebrate freedoms
as members of a democratic society,
where freedom to choose occurs in
most aspects of life. All you need
to do is shop at Wal-Mart to know
choices intersect every part of life. Just
walking down the cereal aisle can be
overwhelming when making a simple
choice of cereal in the midst of multiple
kinds!
Choice is good. Some choices don’t
take much effort. What to eat, wear,
and how to spend leisure time are choices we effortlessly make each day. Living in a democracy gives us freedom to
choose religion, work, home ownership,
personal beliefs, and much more. For
every time and season, there is choice.
Choice is available in our personal
life. There is choice over behavior,
responses to people and situations, and
emotions. There’s choice over how we
treat others. We also have a choice in
how others treat us, and how we allow
their treatment to affect us.
How is this possible? Initially, we
may not be able to control how people
treat us. But we do have a choice over
whether we accept or tolerate their
behavior on an ongoing basis. We can
set boundaries with others who don’t
treat us with respect or honor. We have
a choice over what we’ll tolerate and
how we respond to dishonoring and
disrespectful behavior.
Choice makes the difference in
being a victim, survivor, or an over
comer. In reading accounts of prisoners of war or Holocaust survivors,
those who considered themselves over
comers are those who didn’t al