No thank you

When I was younger, my mom would pass me a plate or bowl of something I had no interest in eating. Thinking I was oh so clever, I would hand the plate or bowl to the person next to me, smile and sweetly say, "No thank you." My mom would smile sweetly back at me and give me a serving of whatever had been contained on the plate or in the bowl.

We called it the no thank you helping.

And recently in life, I've had to start saying it again.

I'm not the kind of person who likes to say no. I love being needed! I want to feel helpful and encouraging to the people around me. But in the past year, I've found myself saying yes to everything when in actuality, I needed to be saying no a bit more.

When I was asked to be on the board of our homeschool co-op, I was convinced that my husband would gently encourage me to pass on the opportunity. After all, we were up to our eyeballs in life. And frankly, I was half assing a lot of things. I was shocked when he gave me a resounding, "GO FOR IT!" He reminded me of how my passion is education, how I'm a natural teacher, how I love helping a child (especially my children!) learn. He reminded me of my vision for the co-op, which I had been sharing with the board for a couple years.

I thought he's gone nuts. Finally, I though, I had pushed him off the deep end. How on earth was I going to take on such a big task and responsibility when I was barley finishing so many things in front of me?! Then it dawned on me. I needed to say no thank you to other opportunities.

The first thing I said no to was being the kids' choir director at church for a 2nd year.

The first one wasn't too hard. My co-director was moving, no one else was interested in helping, the leadership at church encouraged me to not take one too much and even put my mind at ease when the choir dissolved.

But when I had to say no thank you this week, it made me sad. I had to remind myself that I was saying no so that I could say yes to doing other things with excellence.

I thought by 36 I would be through my growing pains.

Think again, Kierstyn.....