The Power of Yes and No

I'm currently working to transform my use of two words: YES and NO.  Two simple, small words that pack so much power in our lives.  Here's what I mean:

A little over a year ago I heard one of my mentors say, "For every single yes that you say, you are saying thousands of nos."  

He explained it to me this way:  When you said yes to marrying your spouse, you said no to thousands of other people.  When you said yes to your career choice, you said no to thousands of other possibilities.  When you say yes to that work meeting at night, you are saying no to time with your kids and wife.  Every yes carries with it so many more nos.  In that conversation, my mentor challenged me to realize that when I say yes once, I am saying a ton of nos at the same time. One YES packs a lot of power.

So here's how I am trying to balance The Power of Yes and No in my own life at the moment.

I am working hard to say yes in a few areas.  When someone approaches me with an idea or dream God has given them, I want to say YES!  I want to be a person who gives them the divine go-ahead.  When someone has a God-given idea or God inspires me with a vision of what could be, I want to have enough margin in my life to say YES.  When people close to me need my time, focus, & attention, I want to be able to respond with a loud and proud YES!

And here's what I've realized in this process: To say YES to the areas & people in my life that are most important, I have to learn to say NO a lot more.  I have to say NO to things that can become a distraction, to things that aren't the most important, and to things that drain the margin in my life and prohibit me from saying YES to what God's called me to.  In short, being able to say YES to the God-things means saying NO to what are sometimes good things.  

Yes and No:  Two simple words that pack the power of life.