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Blue Icing Is Better Making choices based on God's wisdom by Nikki Rutz Forrest Gump said that "life is like a box of chocolates." I know there's a deep analogy to be drawn from this statement, but I can't help thinking if life were a "box of cupcakes covered in blue icing," how truly awesome that would be. The "awesome" part being, for me, the blue icing. Yes, yes, I know. A particular "color" of icing adorning a cake or cupcake or cookie is not supposed to taste any different merely because of its color. After all, colors are not "flavors" in the "icing world" — just a visual preference. But I beg to differ. In my experience, blue icing tastes better. A friend of mine is the co-owner of a bakery where she spends much of her time preparing wedding cakes and other types of baked goods that we women try to steer clear of. She also makes a very delicious icing made of "secret ingredients." I recently told her of my fascination with blue icing. She smiled sweetly and asked if I used to have blue icing on my birthday cakes as a child — perhaps I associated blue icing with some pleasant experience. As far as I recall, all my birthday cakes had pink icing. My obsession with blue icing has just come about in recent years. I don't think my friend was convinced of my demands that blue icing is better. However, she made a small batch of her "secret ingredients" icing and colored it blue just for me. I confess that I reveled in the joy of how much better tasting it was than all the other colors of icing. In life, some things truly are better than others. Whether or not my fascination with blue icing can be supported by the science of taste buds, there are some things that simply win out over others. Most obvious, I think, are the choices we make in life. We make choices everyday — they make up our daily living and navigate us through our processing of what's going on around us. We respond to each moment of our day with a choice that dictates our behavior. It seems that some choices are definitely better than others ... and I wonder if we ever consider the reality of this or if we just choose to ignore the results of the not-so-great decisions. Paul said that a life driven by our own selfishness results in things such as jealousy, quarreling, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, etc. But, he tells us, a life driven by God and His Spirit results in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, etc. (Galatians 5:19-23). Choices made based on God's directives for us instead of choices made based on our own feelings about a situation end in better choices made. Are the choices you are making in life the result of a life driven by God or your own selfish desires? When we choose to react in anger or get offended, when we choose to open doors to experiences that will inevitably end up as addictions, or when we choose to ignore wisdom and advice from those who have been there before us, we risk making unwise decisions. The key, I believe, is to seek wisdom in how we choose to respond, in the things we choose to do, and in the decisions we choose to make. Jeremiah 6:16 tells us to "stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls." (ESV) I wonder what our lives would look like if we all sought to walk through life on these better paths. My baking friend is probably right. In the icing world, there probably is no icing that tastes "better" because of its color. But if the array of choices provided us by way of colored icing were akin to the paths we choose in life, then I would argue that there are definitely colors that are better than others ... in particular, blue icing really is better.