Just what I needed today

Now that it's sweet summertime I have more flexibility in my schedule. A friend of mine asked if I wanted to join her on Tuesday mornings for a bible study series through our church this summer and I have been wanting to do a study for awhile now. It just came at the right time and it's about none other than how to say no/yes in the right times. The book states "It's easy to think that our daily yes and no decisions aren't all that important, but over time, they can add up: The decisions we make dictate the schedules we keep; the schedules we keep determine the life we live; the life we live determines how we spend our soul- and how we spend our soul matters." This was profound to me. 

 As you can tell from my blog, I manage to keep us very busy and a lot of the time sometimes over committed. The season of life that we are in with many of our friends getting married lends us to having events constantly. Sometimes it is OK to say no but I have a really hard time with that. I'm not just referring to wedding events but to every other invitation that comes our way. I knew this series would be good for me to hear. Today was our first session and it was great! There was a room full of probably close to 50 women who are probably struggling with similar things to me whether it's saying "no" to playdates, showers, dinners, etc. Not just because you don't want to go but because as someone said in the session today "if you don't leave any time in your schedule you won't be able to see God working and he doesn't have a chance to speak to you." This spoke volumes to me. I seem to schedule up our nights and our weekends to a point where we don't even have time to spend just the two of us. It's a double-edged sword. I love to be social to see our friends and family but I also crave down time. I need to make this more of a priority in my life so that I can see what life unfolds in the slow times too. 

Not only was the session today what I needed to hear but I'm also reading "Carry on, Warrior" by Glennon Melton. She is very candid about her life experiences and the struggles she has gone through. The part of the book today I read through really resonated with me about hope. I actually finished the book today. Both readings and hearing from the women at church and reading Glennon's stories I felt rejuvenated and hopeful that I too have some growing to do with God this summer. This summer is fairly calm considering how the past few months have been for us and I look forward to learning more through the sessions to come. It was just what I needed today.