The Best Yes

You know that feeling when you open a closet to clean it, and then you shut the door and walk away because it's just too overwhelming? Yeah, that's me and this blog post.

I have probably T-minus nine minutes while Ethan is still napping, Thomas is preoccupied and the laundry isn't going anywhere. Unfortunately.
There is WAY too much to cover about how the last couple of months has taught me, but if I don't write it down I might forget and then a day will come when I'll need to remember, you know what I mean?
So here it goes, unedited, honesty junk:

1. God is alive and well. He is active in every detail and "happening" that goes on, it's just up to us to take time to notice Him. The more I'm acknowledging this, the more He's making Himself obvious to me.

2. I am grateful I'm seeing why God led me to the word "Rest" for this year and how my dear friend Heather took me off the teaching schedule this fall. Hallelujah, God knew I would need some time and energy for other endeavors (that sounds lofty, maybe the word "needs" is better than endeavors, whatever, I don't have time for my thesaurus!)

3. When you really need to take time and talk to God, He will help with that. And it may be a huge poopy diaper explosion involving carseats, clothes, bathtubs (yes, multiple tubs...) and it's all about attitude...right? RIGHT?! Good grief.

4. Even when there's a lot of poop or just the crap of life happening, there is JOY. Yes, always. We went to Florida this summer and I was determined to not just post smiley, happy pictures so that all of social media will think our life is pinterest-perfect (HELLO! It's NOT and No one else's is either, so just quit with that thinking!)
I decided I wanted to post the "what's really going on with this picture" posts. A couple of days into doing it I realized how far I had come in the area of really owning the reality that happiness is based on circumstances, joy, however is the bedrock of my foundation! The joy of the Lord is my strength. Over and over again I would post a picture and then tell the bad/negative behind the scenes stuff...but the thing was that bad stuff (1,000 degree heat, screaming child right before the pic was taken, bucket load of spit up right after a pic was taken etc) didn't change the joy of the moments for me. Hallelujah, praise Jehovah.
 Not so long ago, spit up so huge, at a beach side restaurant, that it puddled in my dress between my legs and dripped through...seriously...would have meant that we all had to load up and go home so I could be sad, mad, showered, whatever. Not anymore...I chose joy. I was grateful they already had a whole roll of paper towels on the table (shoutout to Harry T's!), grateful I had chosen to wear blue stripes that (mostly) hid the giant stain, grateful we could continue on with our night out with the kids and not ruin everyone's fun with a pity party!

5. Ps I'm not perfect at #4. I still have pity parties, but I'm celebrating my imperfect progress.

6. Which brings me to Lysa Terkeurst. Some girls from our weekly bible study group went to see her speak Sunday night at the NWA Women's Conference. Holy cow. Here's some golden gems from it:
  a) Go where wisdom gathers, not where wisdom scatters. You want to be wise? Go where wise people go, be with wise people and do what wise people do.
  b)Shift your focus from the the problem to the promises (of God.)
  c) Obeying His instruction today will give us more discernment/keen awareness for what tomorrow holds.
  d) Just because we feel a certain way, doesn't mean we have to be a certain way.
  e) Learn to bend without breaking. This is life. It is and will be hard at times.
  f) We won't hit the mark everyday---GRACE----but we will keep showing up day after day to try again.
  g) Unrush me. It's people, not projects. Look for divine appointments each day. (He always has them for us, we just need to slow down to see them.)
  h) Abigail (from Old Testament) didn't know she'd be a star in the bible! She just obeyed God and it happened. We don't realize how important we are. (Or how our story intertwines in divine ways with other people's stories....I made that up, but I believe it's true and I think Lysa would back me up.)
  i) We are all Burdened, Busy, and Blessed...not every assignment is ours, but in the middle of all those "Bs" look for God's assignment for us. Look for "us" in the "rUSh" of life.

7. Thank you God for letting me run into a lady yesterday I had never met and she said she read my blog...I will never quit being shocked that people keep reading this and how you encourage me to keep at it, even when the laundry is looming and it's time to get in that looooong car rider line.

Thanks for reading this ramble if you've made it this far. Please take a minute to look around you and decide where your "Best Yes" should be for you today. We canNOT do it all.

ps I'm not getting paid or anything for pushing this book, but y'all...it's an amazing message. The author is also donating 100% of proceeds to Christian initiatives around the world.

This post is part of Lysa TerKeurst’s “The Best Yes” Blog Tour which I am delighted to be a part of along with many other inspiring bloggers.  To learn more and join us, CLICK HERE. (http://goo.gl/bQVJW0)

www.thebestyes.com