When Abraham traveled to the land of Canaan, he took with him everything that he owned.  This was lots of stuff, because he was very rich and had lots of tents, lots of silver and gold, herds of sheep and herds of cattle!  Abraham's nephew, Lot had traveled with Abraham and the problem was that he also had lots of servants and animals.

Between Abraham's and Lot's sheep there was hardly enough grass and water to go around.  And before long, they realised that there just wasn't enough for everyone to stay in the same place.  Even worse, their shepherds and herdsmen began to quarrel and fight over the best pastures.  It's not good for boys and girls to quarrel and fight, is it?

No, so they decided that they would have to separate and stay in different places.  Since Abraham was older, he had the right to choose first where he wanted to stay.  But he did not want to argue over land, so Abraham allowed Lot to choose where he wanted to keep his sheep.

Lot looked around and saw the beautiful Jordan valley towards the East.  "Hah!" he thought, "That's the best land and now I will get rich!"  Poor Abraham was left with the rugged hills and not much water.

And so it was decided.  Abraham would stay in Canaan while Lot would move near the city of Sodom.  Lot could not wait to grab all the rich fertile plains near Sodom!  But, he did not realise that the men there were very wicked.  Do you think Lot made a good choice?

Before too long a war broke out between the kings that lived near Lot.  Lot and his family were taken prisoners and all of their possessions were stolen!  Abraham heard the terrible news and knew he had to do something about it, even though he now lived far away, for he was still Lot's uncle!

So he called together 318 of his trained servants and set out to rescue Lot and his family.  With God's help, Abraham defeated the kings and rescued Lot, his family and all their possessions.

Lot did not realise that he had made a bad choice in choosing the Jordan plains near Sodom.  Because of all the wicked people there, God destroyed the city with fire and all the bad people died.  Even Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt and died, and poor Lot lost all his possessions!

Abraham had made a good choice and God said to Abraham after Lot had departed from him, "Look to the north and south, east and west.   All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.  I will make your offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth.  Go and walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."

God wants us to make good choices.  If you choose to disobey your parents, or be naughty, or shout and scream, those are bad choices.  If we ask God, He will help us make good choices.

God can help you to decide to be good and listen to your parents and obey them.  You can choose be helpful, to be kind to other people and to be polite. If you make good decisions and choices, they will please God.

Think about the choices and decisions you made this past week.  Were they good?  Or were they bad?  Let's ask Jesus to help each one of us make some good choices today.

God bless!