I have a dog, Lambeau (named after Lambeau Field). Lambeau is a good boy. He is smart, for a dog. In the mornings, he comes and sits near me as I do my Bible study. He knows I eat shortly after that, and he hopes to get a bite. He recognizes basic patterns like that. He is interested in food and water. He wants a belly rub sometimes. He is what I call a nap thief—if anyone is napping at any time, he wants in!

Sometimes Lambeau will look at me, and for a brief moment, I almost feel like we could communicate. But then he gets distracted by a sound from the kitchen, or an itch that he has, and he is on to his next doggy adventure.

He’s a good dog. But he’s just a dog. His world is really small, and he doesn’t know any different. That is how God made him.

Genesis 1 records, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Verses 24-25).

God made dogs, too. They are good (unless corrupted by man) and serve the purpose God created them for.

But then God created something different: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (verse 26).

God made us to look like Him, in His likeness. And He wants us to develop in His character image. He wants us to learn to think like He thinks.

Animal Brain vs. Human Mind

God created the animals to have instinct. But he created us differently.

Herbert W. Armstrong states in What Science Can’t Discover about the Human Mind:

“Animals are equipped with brain and instinct. But they do not have power to understand and choose moral and spiritual values or to develop perfect spiritual character. Animals have brain, but no intellect—instinct, but no ability to develop holy and godly character” (emphasis added).

What is instinct? By definition, instinct is an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli. Scientists have done studies on birds, for example, that illustrate their instinct to build nests. No one teaches them.

Mr. Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages, “Human and animal brain are alike. Human mind superiority comes not from superior brain, but from the presence of human spirit within the human brain. Animal brain is supplied with instinct, not intellect.”

God created us with a human spirit. We can learn, think, reason and make choices.

Job 32:8 tells us, “There is a spirit in man.” 1 Corinthians 2:11 tells us, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”

Along with the ability to learn, we have to make choices as to what we will do. Mr. Armstrong asks in The Incredible Human Potential: “Doesn’t God know everything? The answer is no. … God does not choose to know, in advance, what you or I will be thinking, reasoning, deciding, tomorrow or in the future.
He gives us the power to think for ourselves, to choose, to make decisions.”

That is a power that you have—to choose! You have choices to make all the time. It is estimated that we make 35,000 choices each day! Not all of them are conscious, of course, but God wants you to make decisions. Why?

“Remember, God’s purpose in creating man is to reproduce Himself—with such perfect spiritual character as only God possesses—who will not and therefore cannot ever sin! … Such perfect spiritual and holy character cannot be created by fiat. It must be developed, and that requires time and experience.

“Such character—I repeat—is the ability in a single entity to come to comprehend and distinguish the true values from the false, the right way from the wrong, to choose the right and reject the wrong, and, with power of will, to do the right and resist the evil.

“Animals are equipped with brain and instinct. But they do not have power to understand and choose moral and spiritual values or to develop perfect spiritual character. Animals have brain, but no intellect—instinct, but no ability to develop holy and godly character.

And that pictures the transcendental difference between animal brain and human mind” (ibid).

God has created in us the special ability to make choices! That is an awesome power and responsibility! We build character by making right choices, and we destroy character by making wrong choices. “The Christian must develop the righteous character to choose the right way, and resist the wrong—to discipline the self in the way he ought to go, instead of the way of self-desire and vanity” (ibid).

What Are You Really Choosing?

God required Adam and Eve to make some big choices. We read in Genesis 3:1-4: “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.”
God tells us the truth. Satan lies. We have to choose who to believe.

“Adam and Eve rejected God and believed Satan,” Gerald Flurry writes. Notice what they chose by believing Satan: “They chose to design their own society, their own laws, their own religions, their own science. The civilization that came about as a result has been built on rejecting God’s definition of good and evil and deciding for ourselves what is good and evil” (Feb. 2016 Philadelphia Trumpet; emphasis added). Satan is the father of lies, and he is subtle. We can make a choice and not fully realize what we are choosing!

When you are faced with a choice, stop, think, and ask yourself: What am I really choosing?

Eve thought she was choosing to be wise like God. But think of all the problems that have come from that civilization. Wars, drug addiction, the Holocaust—that is what she chose! But it wasn’t presented that way. It was presented as deciding for themselves what is good and evil, and this civilization is the end result of that way of thinking.

If you choose not to put your full effort into participating in an activity, if you choose not to pay attention in a class, what are you really choosing? To not be a leader, not support your team, not grow, not be effective—to not have the future you should have! You are choosing to lose. If you choose to pay attention, you are choosing so much more! The smallest moments can contain massive choices.

When making choices, understand what you are actually choosing—in other words, what will be the ultimate end result of your choice? People who start unhealthy habits don’t often think about the end result of their choice.

Do the Right Thing

Once you have considered what your choice is, you have to do the right choice.

One of the biggest ways people make the wrong choice is by procrastinating: I’ll get to that at some point. Procrastinating is really choosing not to do something, but lying to yourself along the way. Very few of you would absolutely refuse to follow a direction, but if you procrastinate, you might be subtly choosing to disobey. If we don’t do the right think, what is the value in it? We need to take action. If we know we need to exercise, do it! If we know we need to eat better, do it! If we need to pray and study more, do it!

Deuteronomy 30:19 reads, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” You have to choose, and God wants us to choose life!

Not every one of our 35,000 choices are monumental, but we have thousands of opportunities each day to build character and become more like God! Ultimately, every choice we make either builds the character of God or destroys it, leads to blessings or curses, life or death.

The beauty of choices is that there is always another choice right after. So if you choose wrong, make the next right choice. Learn from your mistakes and move on. God has given us the power of choice, so use it—and choose life.