My daughter Ashtyn has getting what she wants down to an art form. She employs the principle of just wearing me down.
Mom can I stay up late? NO
Mom can I stay up late? NO
Mom Can I PLEASE stay up late? NO
Please Mom, please can I stay up late?
Mooooommmm, can I….. FINE, 30 minutes.
It drives us NUTS. And we really didn’t want to give in. If e did what was BEST for the kids, and us, we would have stuck to our guns.
Whenever we give into the YES instead of sticking to the NO we KNOW is BEST, the reward is smaller for us and them.
The kids are tired and crabby the next day, and we wonder, “what was I thinking!”
I don’t want to give my kids, my family, my friends, my church or anyone less than the best.
So why:
-When the right answer is no.
-The best answer is no.
-Why would I wear down to give those I love anything less than the best answer.
BUT…
Isn’t that what we do with God??? (uh oh, this just got really real).
We THINK we KNOW we want, the way we want it. So we stay after God until we THINK we stop getting a NO.
We proceed past His NO and get ourselves in a sticky situation and then we are like “God, why did YOU let this happen to me?”
And that’s exactly what our kids do with us!
NO – can be a great word. An empowering word. A word that allows the BEST YES to open up in our lives. Keeping us from the wrong things and guiding us toward the right things.
When we say NO to the wrong things and trust God when He tells us NO, we’re positioned correctly – with time, money, energy, to say YES to the right things, the big things, the best things.
