Just Say No!

NO.  What a powerful little 2 letter word.  NO.  I say NO often in my days.  You see I have 3 boys 9, 3, and 1.  NO, is a part of our daily routine. “Mom can I have another cupcake- NO” Cole grabs for his brothers hair- NO!!! Cole grabs my earring, hair, necklace- NO!!!  Dylan pulls up my dress in public- NO!!!!  NO, NO, NO everyday.  Sometimes, I just want to say YES all day and see what in the world happens. I think it would look something like: sugar strung out kids, a partially bald 3 year old, a one year old eating my earring and maybe a few visits to the ER.

I had an interesting run in with the word NO this week.  I am working on my YES.  I say YES to many activities in my life. Activities that over work me, leave me stressed, leave me spending less time at home and more time serving others in many different capacities.  Another YES we say in this house is to sports.  Football is a big YES during this season of our life.  3 hours 3 times a week we say YES to practice.  3 hours at least are committed to games on Saturdays.  Plus, I’ve got a husband on the youth football board and coaching the team.  There’s A LOT of YES wrapped up in football this year.  After a long season of running around like a crazy football mom, chasing toddlers at the games and being a Football season widow, it came to an end last weekend.  Sadly we did not advance to the next round of playoffs.  So this was our first week of NO football, accept Cohen was asked to play all week with the older team to help them prepare for their big final game this weekend.  WHAT!  I thought it was over!!!! I was planning out my nice peaceful week, now we are running again!  WAHHHHH!!!!  So, like any good football Mom I went along with the YES.

Thursday all I wanted to do was take my boys to the pumpkin patch. With all the busyness of the season we had not had a chance to do this once a year activity that I love!  Determined to make it work, I hustled home from working, changed my clothes, grabbed the kids from all their locations and headed to the patch.  We had 1 hour to get to everything.  Only 1 hour!  I was focused we were gonna get in and get out and get Cohen to football practice.  While I herded the boys from one activity to the other like cattle on crack I saw my craziness.  In our YES to football we had said NO to living life.  In my YES to everything else these last few months, I had been saying NO to what was really important.  Spending time with my family.  So, I picked up my phone and let the coach know Cohen was not going to be at practice. We had an amazing time yesterday at the pumpkin patch.  We had no time limit, no agenda, nothing to run off to. We stayed till it was dark and cold.  As I drove home I prayed that I would make it a priority to pray over my yeses in life.  To think more about what my personal call is and what that means for the activities I say YES to; for my marriage, my kids and my self.  

Even Jesus took time away from his very important tasks to have rest and quiet and time with his disciples:

“The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, He said to them, ‘Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place” (Mk. 6:30-32).

As we enter the craziest season of the year, we may need to plan to say no.  Let’s all take out our calendars and figure out what our YES will look like and what we need to make our NO’s.  Let us spend beautiful time with no agenda, in quiet places, preparing our mind, bodies and souls for the demanding world out there.  Lets play in corn, pick pumpkins, feed bunnies and ride on hay bales in restful thankfulness this Thanksgiving season!

Much Love to my Beautifully, Wonderfully Made Friends!

~Chrystan