A thought to ponder as you move through your day today…

There are those in life who want to control others, feel a need to control others by manipulating them into behaving a certain way, doing a specific thing, taking a specific position on something that is of consequence to the person with the agenda.

But here’s the thing we need to remember. We choose what we embrace and what we reject. We decide. Others only influence us to the extent that we allow them to influence us.

Considering that these attempting to control us have their own agendas–which very often have nothing to do with us and everything to do with them–we should be judicious in whose lead we follow. Who we permit to influence us.

The thought is this: we all have a moral compass. We know the difference between right and wrong and what is acceptable behavior and what is not. We need only trust our own judgement and exercise our own common sense. We are not to be led by those unworthy to lead. We are capable and well able to decide who and what we believe without being nudged into adopting beliefs and behaviors that we know innately are wrong.

We need only exercise our own good judgment–and to refute and deny those who would manipulate us for their own purposes.

In the end, we choose. They can attempt, try to nudge, guide and manipulate. But they fail to tell us what to think unless we permit them to succeed.

It’s our choice.