The Best Yes by Lysa TerKeurst teaches us the value of good decision-making. There’s no need to be overwhelmed by life when God gives us the wisdom to choose the best course of action in each situation in which we find ourselves.

It’s not easy to change our hectic life into one with less stress, but the key to doing so is to learn how to say no so you can give your “Best Yes” to the right responsibilities.

We all want to be accepted and liked for who we are. Because of this, many of us have the tendency to say yes to the demands of others even when we know it’s going to tax us to do so. We don’t want to say no because we fear people will stop liking us or could be disappointed in us. Worse yet, we feel we’ll let God down if we aren’t giving enough Christian.

There is a way to make life easier, though. When we accept assignments, we should make sure they line up with our godly calling, which helps us make our “Best Yes” decisions. We must decide if we have the time and energy to devote to projects and people, and if we know we don’t, we need to tell them so. It’s also better for us to know how much we can handle, so we can offer people the best version of ourselves when we serve their needs.

In this summary, you will learn:

  • that too many demands on our time and attention will eventually break us;
  • how indecision and fear stop us from pursuing our best opportunities; and
  • tips for discovering new freedom in life.

We must have courage when we travel down the path of our “Best Yes” decisions.

All of us have suffered from anxiety about making correct decisions in our lives. We wonder when we go down path A if we really should have taken path B. It’s frustrating to be filled with indecision. Not only do we not want to let ourselves or others down, but we definitely don’t want to let God down by making wrong choices. But we have to make choices, and even if we feel overburdened or stressed out, we still have to put our best foot forward and take action.

Sometimes all we want to do is curl up and let the world pass us by, but the pressures and people in our lives won’t let us. We may want to say no to some demand for our time, but we feel obligated to say yes, to play along and make everyone happy even if at times we are screaming inside that we need to stop and take a break from it all. And when we aren’t careful, we start to run on empty.

We all have limitations, but we hesitate to admit this to others and, at times, even to ourselves. We say yes to so many demands that our “Best Yes” assignments pass us by because we are so used to trying to please others that we forget we have another option to give them when they ask us for something besides the standard yes-or-no answer. We can check the Best Yes box if we’re brave enough to do it.

We all have a part to play in the grand scheme of life. We can make decisions with the Best Yes as our guide. We owe it to ourselves and God to live our best life through love for others, not from a warped obligation to please everyone all the time. Unfortunately, when we’re running on empty, we become frazzled and may start to miss the truly important matters that we should be paying attention to, those that God is calling us to concentrate on.

None of us wants to miss invitations from God. However, sometimes we get so busy with life that we deliberately brush off the still small voice leading us to do something we know we should do. We deliberately ignore Him, and when we do that, we end up missing the best direction for our lives.

We want to have blessed companionship with God, but sometimes we miss that too. But God is patient and is always there, ready to tell us, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). We have a second chance to stop what we’re doing and turn and obey His leading. He’s always willing to tell us where to go.

Life doesn’t have to be so complicated that we never take the time to dream.

Doing things the way we’ve always done them will only get us so far. But if we change our approach, a whole new world will open for us. We have to learn to dive headfirst and backward over the high jump just like Dick Fosbury did in the Olympics, earning him the nickname “Fearless.” That’s how we need to be when making decisions. We need to make proactive ones that actually get us somewhere instead of remaining stuck being reactive to everything going on around us.

None of us wants to live with an underwhelmed soul that is waiting to achieve more in this life, all the while wondering if we’ll ever get it. But with an overwhelmed schedule, that’s what we’ll get stuck with – mediocrity and unfulfilled dreams. We need to make the time to take the first steps toward our unrealized potential. We need to make our “soul thing” a priority.

It’s not easy to set aside time to fulfill our dreams. People will compete for our attention, and suddenly we may find any number of activities that seem halfway important, but we must be dedicated to grabbing hold of our special soul time because this is the time when we shine. This is when our true, God-given gifts come out and become a blessing to others. Soul time is never wasted.

We all experience the problem at times of failing to make a needed decision right away. We sit and wonder about what will happen if we say yes to something while also wondering about the consequences of answering no. We know deep down what the answer should be already, but for some reason, we stall and waste time. In reality, we need to let our yes mean yes and our no mean no, and then move forward. We do have the ability to discern the best answer (Philippians 1:9-10)…

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