UPDATE: The winner of the giveaway is Helen G. Thank you to all who entered!
I begrudgingly awake to the sound of my phone alarm blaring on my nightstand. I struggle, in my third-trimester state, to turn over and hit snooze before the noise wakes my children up. Too late. No sooner do I silence the alarm than I hear my daughter bound down the stairs of her bunk bed and I hear the door to my son’s room open. Whether I want it to or not, my day is beginning. I shower at record pace, rush the children through the morning routine, and feed them breakfast in the car.
I arrive at my weekly Bible study a solid 15 minutes late. I try to focus on the teacher, but I can’t resist checking my e-mail and replying to a text that I received last week. I quietly excuse myself early in order to gather my children and make it to a prescheduled lunch meeting. During the meal, I receive a phone call from a friend inviting my children to a birthday party. I accept, but I know that in doing so, I just filled up our only free day for the entire month.
I load my children back up in the car and we race through town, trying to make it home before the younger ones can fall asleep. We bustle through the door, and I trip over shoes and toys that I neglected to put away during the morning rush. I sigh as I stare at the kitchen sink overflowing with dishes. I don’t have time to tackle that beast before my dog demands his lunch and the kids begin to argue over a toy. The chaos reminds me why my house is unclean. Discouraged, I feed the puppy and put the overly emotional kids to bed.
Thirty minutes later, I exhale as I exit the last child’s room. I have a two-hour time frame in which I can do something that doesn’t involve little bodies. All I can think about is my comfortable bed and the silence that is all around me, but as I lie down, I realize I have an overdue bill that needs my attention. I muster up enough energy to walk into my office, where I finally acknowledge a 10-foot-high stack of papers. I set to work around my desk, but before I can accomplish much, I realize it is time to get the children up.
I hate waking sleeping babies, but today (like many days) we don’t have a choice. I hand them a quick snack and encourage them to get directly into the car. We rush from karate class to ballet class and then to the gas station. As I finally drive home, my husband calls to say he is home from work and gently reminds me that our neighbors are coming over for dinner. I groan, not because of the company, but because I totally forgot to start the slow cooker meal I had planned, and how can we have dinner anyway without clean dishes? Kicking myself for not starting dinner earlier in the day and for avoiding the dishes for two days, I surrender to purchasing takeout.
As the evening ends, I rush through the night routine with my children because all I can think about is my bed. My body aches to lie down, but I still have a mound of dirty dishes, my dog wants to take a walk, my husband is asking for my attention, and I need to write my next blog post. Well after midnight, I finally crawl into bed and realize that tomorrow is even busier than today was. No wonder life is slipping by so quickly.
Unrush me, Lord.
Do you ever overcommit yourself? I have struggled with this problem as long as I can remember. As a high school student, I went from one extracurricular activity to another. In college, I took 22 credits a semester in addition to working full-time and planning a wedding. As a wife and mother, I struggle to say no to ministry opportunities or social invites. I am a people pleaser and I find myself living life one appointment after another, one phone call after another, one event after another.
Unrush me, Lord.
Here’s the thing: I’m not the only one living at such a rapid pace. My choices force my husband and children to exist in the same constant state of rush. I don’t want that for them! I don’t want my family to be so busy that we don’t have time to listen to the Lord should He ask us to serve or sacrifice in a way that is not preplanned. I do not want my children to know busyness rather than holy margin. I don’t want my husband to feel as if he isn’t a priority in my life.
Unrush me, Lord.
The Lord has been convicting me of this for years. I’ve written about the subject in my book and my blog, yet in each of my attempts to change, I have focused on behavior modification rather than true life change. So, you can imagine the tears that flowed last week when I heard Lysa TerKeurst open the She Speaks conference with this phrase:
Unrush me, Lord.
He needs me to be unrushed—for my husband, for my children, and for myself. I can’t live the life He desires for me if I leave no room for interruption. At the end of her speech, Lysa introduced her new book, The Best Yes: Making Wise Decisions in the Midst of Endless Demands. I avoided the book table the entire conference, afraid to pick up her book because I knew it would be an uncomfortable read.
Here’s what the back of the books says:
Are you living with the stress of an overwhelmed schedule and aching with the sadness of an underwhelmed soul? Lysa TerKeurst is learning that there is a big difference between saying yes to everyone and saying yes to God. In The Best Yes she will help you
- Cure the disease to please with a biblical understanding of the command to love.
- Escape the shame and guilt of disappointing others by learning the secret of the small no.
- Overcome the agony of hard choices by embracing a wisdom-based decision-making process.
- Rise above the rush of endless demands and discover your Best Yes today.
I don’t know about you, but I can relate to the problem this book will address. I need to slow down. I need the Lord to direct my life. I need to position my marriage as a priority. I know there will be moments while reading where I will fall on my face in repentance, but that is what I need.
Does this book seem like one you might need as well?
Even though the book doesn’t go on sale until August 12, I have an extra copy, autographed by Lysa, that I would LOVE to give away to one of my readers. And for fun, I will throw in a copy of For the Love of Our Husbands as well! If you think you’d be blessed by these books, enter to win below!
Unrush us, Lord!
Edited by Mary Anne Brady – Affordable & Meticulous Editing Services at www.bradyediting.com
Sharing with Wedded Wednesday and Motivation Monday.
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