Learning To Say No...And Yes

I am finally coming back to my Stuck Bible study, and the chapter I'm on is "Overwhelmed". I can honestly say that (at this exact moment) I'm not feeling too overwhelmed, but I know the pendulum can easily swing the other way. I often say no to things just because I'm afraid of being overwhelmed. I am naturally a homebody, and I am fiercely protective of what little time I get with Steve and what little time he gets with the girls. I hate having things scheduled outside the home in the evenings, even church. 

My weakness tends to be in finding the balance. I say yes to things, but I rarely pause to think (or pray) if that event or obligation is part of God's perfect plan for my life. Our calendar will get stuffed with plans, obligations, and we rarely get to breathe as a family. So then I start to swing the other way; I say no to almost everything, and we spend some precious moments at home. After a few months, though, I begin to wonder if I'm truly protecting my time in a God-honoring, or just using the excuse of family as a shield to ignore serving others.

I have struggled with this balance for years, and it has only gotten harder as we had children. Throughout this last year, Whitney and my sister-in-law, Julie, have been a huge encouragement to me as we figured out what was best for our family. I've gotten better at saying no without feeling guilty, and I've learned that it's okay to say "no" for no other reason than what's best for your family.

The harder lesson has been to say "yes" when I didn't feel like it, but knew it was what God wanted. Trey once said that God will never be able to use you if you don't make room for new people in your life. This has been a hard lesson for me, because I feel like I barely get enough time with the people I really love, let alone being sensitive to someone who the Lord wants me to reach out to.

So that's going to be one of my goals for this year - continue to be okay saying "no" to obligations that aren't best for our family, or that I'm only saying yes to because of who's asking, and at the same time, give my time over to God and allow Him to use me for more "yes"'s that are for His purpose!