time to say no

The itch to write has been strong lately... perhaps I've been ignoring it for far too long.  It has been about 11 months since I wrote my last entry.  So many things have prompted me to write and the time has just not been there to do so.  And that leads in to my topic for today: time.

My energetic daughter is asleep on the couch right now (it's 4:30 in the afternoon).  She is fighting a stomach bug.  This stomach bug has been plaguing our kids off and on for over 2 weeks now.  (Apparently we are not the lucky family who gets the 24 hour flu.  We get the 24 hour on, 12 hour off, 2 hour on, 24 hours off, 1 hour on, 6 hours off flu.)  I'm kind of getting the hint from God that during this time, practically everything else in my life has to stop and I have to be just mom right now.  I don't do that well.  I do "busy, running around all hours of the day, trying to be everything to everyone."  (I didn't say I did that well.  That's just what I try to do).

And that brings me back to this past year.  My calendar has been unbelievably packed.  (Sheesh, my individual hours are packed - just in trying to write this blog I have had 2 conversations through facebook and one by phone and am in the process of switching my laundry load.)  Last week I finally sat down and wrote out a list of all the things I am involved in and all the activities that fill my days.  I am in the process of whittling that list down so that I can bring my focus back home.

But you know what that means?  I have to tell people "no!"  I don't like to tell people "no!"  A long time ago I realized that I was a people-pleaser. I often felt guilty if I couldn't say yes to helping with something. A wise person (can't remember who) taught me a valuable lesson about saying yes to everything. Just because someone asks me to do something good and wonderful and for the Lord, does not mean that is what the Lord wants me to do.  My responsibility is to pray on it and wait for the Lord to lead me where His plans have me going.  Besides, if I say yes to everything, then no one else will have anything else to do!!

God knows what He wants to do with my life.  Most of the time, honestly, I don't know!  But I do know that I often get in His way.  I have come a long way (when someone comes to my door to sell me apple flavored cleaner, I now say no), but looking back on the crazyness of this past year I realize that I still have a long way to go.

I like being busy.  I don't like to sit still.  But I have to be careful that my busy-ness is in accordance with God's will for my life and my family.  What about you?  Is there something you should be saying "no" to?  How do you decide what to say yes to and what to say no to?

KC