Good, Better, Best!

My dear friend (who I’ve mentioned before) and I just finished reading The Best Yes by Lysa Terkeurst this summer.  This is a timely book for our culture that is saturated in busyness.

Though I often turn up my nose at “girly” ministry-type events and books [for reasons that could be a post in and of themselves], I decided to give this one a chance.  And it was a good choice for my life.  Though I’ve definitely been getting better in this area, I surely have suffered from “the disease to please” (p. 5), so the truth of this book was one I needed to hear.

It’s all about saying no to things that should get a no so that our lives (read: schedules, emotional bandwidths, energy levels, etc.) will be able to say yes to the best things that are truly deserving of our attention.  Learning to tell the difference between these two camps is a delicate dance between following the Lord’s calling to serve those around us and seeing a need and feeling obligated to meet that need or take that opportunity.  Lysa says:

Sometimes the greater act of faith is to let God lead us, talk to us, and instruct us beside the water.  Before we jump in.  Before we’re in over our heads.  Because that’s where we can exercise the power of the small no. […] God does have invitations He wants us to say yes to.  […] We can’t forget why we give small “no” answers.  It’s so we can have the white space and wherewithal to recognize God’s assignments and give Best Yes answers to those. (p. 141)

And those assignments that are most important and that most deserve the attention of our YESes are people.  People are the priority, and they’re worth time and energy and effort.  Other stuff has to be done, too, but people provide the ultimate value for these tasks, Like Lysa says here:

Connecting with those we love is like soul food.  It’s not that we don’t have tasks to do, but rather that we don’t fill up with tasks at the risk of starving our relationships.  Relationships nourish us in ways nothing else can.  It’s the relationships that help unrush us.  p. 182

These and other themes in The Best Yes were of great value to me right now as I’m adjusting to the new pace of married life and having a new role to fill as wife.

Have you read this one?  What did you think?  What stood out most to you?