Recently, Jenny-Lynn and I read The Best Yes, by Lysa Terkeurst. The premise of the book is that women are quick to want to please the people around them and quick to want to jump in and help others, often at the expense of their sanity and their effectiveness in the roles they've been specifically given by God. The author had spent many years running herself crazy by saying yes to anything and everything, instead of taking the time to really understand who God has made her and what He has given her to do and then focusing her best efforts towards those things. In my own life, I have seen myself say yes to things that don't work towards fulfilling the goals and purposes of my own family and the end result is always a more frazzled mommy and a rushed and hurried family. Mrs. Terkeurst helped me to see that by saying yes to peripheral extras that only leave me spinning my wheels I'm actually neglecting the very real Best Yes that is the nurturing of my own family.
Now, the temptation for an introvert like myself is to say, "Yay! No more saying "yes" to anything that makes me tired or surrounds me with people for days at a time or anything that I just don't feel like doing!" Actually, maybe that's not an introvert tendency but rather just a selfish human tendency... Regardless, I don't think that's the point at all. Sometimes Best Yesses are going to require a whole lot of work. Sometimes they are going to surround me with a whole bunch of loud, wild, rambunctious middle schoolers. Like, 21 of them. Sometimes they're not going to seem like the funnest, most relaxing way to spend a weekend. But when your family has created a space specifically for gathering people in, and when your kids are getting older and you really, really want to know them and their friends, and when you look down the road and you want your home to be a known gathering spot, then suddenly the Best Yes looks pretty clear.
This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Redeemer's youth group fall retreat. It was a weekend of feasting, game playing, marshmallow roasting, cocoa drinking, flag capturing, bible studying, praying and all around relationship building. It was loud. It was wild. It was rambunctious. And it was tons of fun. Definitely a Best Yes.
