In August, I took time to think through the fall season of life. (I wrote about several of the steps here.) One of the most helpful parts of this planning process was when I took time to list out the things that wouldn’t happen during the fall season of my life.
Making that list was helpful as I anticipated the fall, but it has been exponentially more helpful now that I’m in that season. Do you want an example of how it’s helpful? Two of the things I decided to say no to during this season were:
1) regular blogging
2) looking like I didn’t just give birth.
Now here’s a peek inside my somewhat mush-ified mommy brain to show you how things go down:
emotional me: “I’m a terrible blogger! Look at all these people blogging five times a week and I haven’t even written once! I need to quit.”
rational me: “You knew it was going to be like this. Blogging isn’t your main priority. You’ll probably get back to writing regularly in the future. If not, that’s really okay too. Settle down and focus on what’s important.”
emotional me: “These pants don’t fit! This shirt looks horrible!!!”
rational me: “Shut up. You just had a baby.”
emotional me: “But she’s 7 weeks old!!!”
rational me: “Don’t make me slap you.”
emotional me: “……….” [looks for nearest stash of chocolate]
Sometimes rational me is literally myself and other times when there’s not a rational ounce of anything left inside, Jonathan steps in and fills that role. [Minus the slapping threat.]
While the above conversations may not have taken place verbatim inside my head, many variations of them have taken place repeatedly over the past 7 weeks. [Key word: repeatedly.] Not only with the above examples, but with my entire list of things I am saying no to during this season.
Here’s the deal:
I CAN’T DO IT ALL.
In my head, I know that. But sometimes I forget. And while I may not try to do every. last. thing. in the universe, I try to do more than I should. During these times, it’s helpful to have a list physically written down that I can reference and remind myself, “Oh hey, that’s not my priority during this season after all. I’ll save that for another season.”
Here’s another part of the deal:
I SHOULDN’T DO IT ALL.
Wanna know what happens when I focus on the wrong things? I focus on things of little importance while ignoring the most important priorities. I don’t intend to; I just get so caught up in something I want that I forget about what really needs to happen. This is where it’s so important to drench every one of these decisions in wisdom and prayer. Because we’re not smart enough to know what’s important all by ourselves. We need God to show us what belongs in our priority list for every season of our lives.
We’re about to embark on the busiest two months of the year. This season, don’t forget to say no to good things so you can say yes to the best.
What are the most important things for you to focus on this season?
Pray!
Ask God to show you through His Word, your spouse, and/or godly mentors.
The great thing is that God wants you to know His will. He wants you to have wisdom.
So if you need it (who doesn’t?!), ask for it! He promises to give to those who ask in faith.
That’s a promise worth claiming!