The sum of Your word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.

Psalm 119:160

One of my current studies posed a question that’s been really difficult for me to answer. I’d wooled it around for over a week and one morning I was feeling really frustrated that the answer is taking so long to come to me. Then, in the way that only God brings things to mind, I remembered what I used to teach my students about taking multiple choice tests.

• Some choices are distractors; they look right at first glance but if you look a little closer, one word is a shade off in meaning or there’s a misplaced symbol in the equation somewhere.

• Some choices are just plain wrong; they don’t contain the right details or the math simply doesn’t add up.

When you’ve dismissed the distractors and eliminated the wrong choices, you’re able to see clearly why the remaining answer is the correct answer.

This process takes a little more time than simply going with a gut feeling or choosing “C” because it’s supposedly the most common answer, but when my students applied it, they not only scored higher, they understood the text they were reading or the mathematical concept they were applying better.

Sweet friend, I’m realizing that some questions, conflicts, and conundrums in life require us to slow down and examine each possible choice. We have to dismiss choices that distract us from finding the real answer or solution, and we have to eliminate choices are just flat out wrong.

Blessedly, life comes with a manual and every test is open book.

God’s Word shines light to help us identify distractions, revealing that sometimes even good choices aren’t the right choice.

God’s Word gives us absolute truth to help us identify wrong choices, revealing flaws in human expression or logic.

God’s Word contains every example, teaching, or piece of advice we could ever need to make the right choice, to choose God’s perfect answer for us – whether it’s a standardized test and the right answer is right for everyone, or it’s a personalized test and the right answer is right for you in this season – God’s Word has everything we need and our Teacher has all the patience in the world (and beyond!) to help us wool choices around until we land on the right one.

Praise God for giving us the open book option on every test in life!

Now friend, you just have to choose to open the book.