You didn’t click on this to read three lengthy introductory paragraphs reiterating the importance of making good decisions. So let me give you, instead, a three-sentence backstory: Joe and I were making some pretty major decisions this past week. We utilized this method, helping to eliminate future doubt about the decisions we were making. We hope it will help you to do the same as you implement these tools through which to filter the choices you face now or in the future. (Three sentences! You didn’t think I could do it, did you?)

Establish your personal mission statement—then utilize this statement as your first filter

Wait! Don’t leave yet. It may sound complex, but this step isn’t hard. It’s a one-time step that will, in the future, simply form the top layer of the sieve through which you will filter your decisions. In fact, this step can both influence and reflect your current priorities. (I say “current priorities” because priorities can change as the seasons of our lives change.) Here are the basics:

— A basic mission statement will succinctly state what you believe your purpose to be. Knowing your purpose (your “why”) is imperative.

As a woman of faith, I think it is wise to form your mission statement through the use of a Bible verse (in our case, two verses, Psalm 71:17-18) to summarize your current why. The reason I don’t come up with some catchy slogan of my own? Scripture never changes. Its timeless truths endure.

— A basic mission statement takes the onus off of you. Similar to the way in which Christ used the pre-established words of God when the evil one made multiple efforts to tempt him, responding to difficult decisions with an unchanging filter from Scripture will strengthen your resolve. When you know that God (through His Word) is the source of the words within your mission statement, you don’t have to rely on your current emotions, opinions, or feelings to sway you away from doing the right thing in this particular situation. These aren’t your flexible words of possible truth; these are God’s words of established truth.

— A basic missions statement helps to unclutter your thought process. If the action, purchase, thought, career, relationship, etc. doesn’t make the initial cut through the filter of established Scripture, you eliminate it then and there—no more time spent pondering, wondering, considering the what-ifs or the if-onlys. If what you’re considering passes through this filter, then move to the next step in your decision-making process.

Evaluate the cost—this includes time, finances, relationship-impacts, and likely consequences (both positive and negative)

If you have the time (or can ungrudgingly make the time) to devote to it, can afford it now (or already have the money set aside), see it as a means of strengthening positive relationships or helping you to establish boundaries from the influence of negative ones, and see the resulting consequences as beneficial to yourself and/or others—go for it!

If, however, continuing through any of these filters violates the initial filter of your mission statement, stop now. Use this level to help you eliminate any existing negatives. If question marks remain, send it back through these first two filters. If you have a clear path to move ahead, you’re ready for the final step.

Establish a plan—this allows you yet another opportunity to filter out any obstacles that still exist

In actuality, this is far from the final step. It is, instead, the next step. At each point along the way, you should continue to apply the previous filters. Things change. What was a good decision yesterday may have been changed by others, by circumstances you have no control over, or by more information coming to light.

Your filters, up to this point, have allowed this decision to make it to the “go-for-it” stage. So…until or unless things change, go for it.

However, and this is the clincher, a decision to move forward requires you to do just that—move forward. A decision to enact the decision is perhaps the most important decision of all.

So there you have it. Yes, it’s more involved than three little steps, but my hope and prayer is that these initial actions will help you to follow the most important step, found in Proverbs 16:3 (ESV): “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”