Proverbs 3: 21-22 in The Voice states "My son (or daughter) never lose sight of God's Wisdom and knowledge: make decisions out of true wisdom, guard your good sense, and they will be life to your soul and fine jewelry around your neck."
Do you ever feel soul weary? So tired you can't make one more decision?
Most of us have experienced this flood of being overwhelmed by life. Everyone is expecting something. Us wanting to meet those expectations, but feeling like there just isn't enough time in our day, week, month, to get it all done. Wrestling with that feeling of not enough "me" to go around.
In our Bible study at church, we are studying Lysa Terkeurst's book The Best Yes. She has done a masterful job of breaking down the decision making process, so that we as women can be equipped to make good decisions.
She teaches that there are two decisions making tendencies, Proactive and Reactive.
And as you've probably already guessed, most of us work out of the reactive tendency.
That would be our knee jerk reaction to either say yes or no without giving it any true consideration through prayer, discussion with our spouse, or looking through the scriptures.
Some women lean towards saying yes too quickly because they hate to disappoint anyone. They figure "surely I can fit this one thing in." Or they feel that it is for a good cause and would be a worth while use of their time.
Then there are the women like me whose knee jerk reaction is to say no too quickly. I do this especially in my parenting. There have been so many times that I've had to go back to my children and tell them that after thinking and praying the answer was yes.
But as today's scripture suggests, we need to be proactive decision makers. We need to make our decisions out of true wisdom - God's wisdom. And in order to do that, we need to take the time to think through the decisions we make with some very concrete resources in mind ( knowledge).
In order to move from the Reactive tendency to being Proactive, evaluate your resources as you're going through the decisions making process. These resources are financial, spiritual, physical, and yes, emotional. Hold the action or event up against these and see how it fits. Is it possible?
I think that's why so many of us are feeling overwhelmed and under appreciated. When we take on something new in our lives whether its babysitting for a friend, being the classroom helper every Friday, or planning a date night with another couple, we fail to look at the big picture of how this is going to play out against everything else that is already on the calendar.
This leads to a place where instead of planning our days according to God's plan: proactive, we spend our days reacting to all the requests of others. Yes, we are to be servants to all, but not every assignment is yours. God has a plan for your life. If you are too busy reacting to everyone else's plan for you, you might miss the joy in doing what God designed you to do.
God designed you for a purpose
Today, I encourage you to assess those obligations that are already on your calendar and see if any of them need to go. Hold them up to the resources mentioned and see if they can be done, making sure that you take the resource of your emotions into account.
Then pray and use scripture seeking God's direction. Keep the ones you know are part of God's plan for you and let go of those that are not.
As our verse says making decisions out of God's Wisdom and Knowledge will be life to our soul, and we need that infusion of His life in our soul so we can be empowered to live for His glory.
bym
www.bonitaymccoy.com
www.beautifulpiecesofgrace.blogspot.com
sign up to receive this blog directly in your email box.