My Best; Your Best; Different, YES!
We are all different, our schedules are different, our marriages are different, our kids are different, our expectations are different, our ideas are different, our experiences are different; WE are DiFfErEnT!!
I have been reflecting on my life for a few months, but especially the last few weeks. My hubby and I have been married for five years. We have three boys, we have moved five different times including two different countries, three states, and six different homes. Life is hectic and sometimes hard. Things don’t always feel successful, or happy, or sustainable.
But this is my life. I chose it. Now I have to own it. It looks different than how I ever imagined it. And if you are being honest, I bet your life looks different too.
Since the reality is that we are all different, it is important for me to remember a few things:
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Comparison is the thief of joy.
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The grass is green where you water it.
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You have to do what is right for you.
Comparison is the thief of joy!
I am who I am through a collection – a lifetime – of choices, consequences, successes and failures. I will never be the same as someone else. I was talking with a girlfriend and we were both saying “wouldn’t that be nice…” referring to a myriad of things others had or were experiencing. But the reality is that in order to experience that one event exactly like that person, I would have to trade positions with that person completely. Like 100%, all of it, every life circumstance. And as glamorous as that one event may look though my eyes, I am sure I don’t want to trade it all for that. So I reflect on the blessings in my own life and find joy in those. I know that if I am always comparing my situation or personal success/failure to yours, I will lose my joy completely. My life is not perfect, but it’s my life, my story, only mine.
The grass is green where you water it.
We all want a great green yard. It shows we have invested in it, we have worked for it, and the end result is lush. So let’s compare our lives to our grass, the great green grass! Is your marriage lush? Are your relationships with your children thriving? Do you have fruitful friendships? Is your metaphorical life grass green and lush? How much time do you put into it?
See just like grass, in order for any part of our lives or just our lives as a whole to flourish, be lush, and thriving, we must water them. Pour into the areas where you want to see growth and success. We can’t expect things to evolve on their own, we have to INVEST in them! If your grass is brown, dryed out, dying even…Go water it! Put some time into your life. Make it flourish. Don’t stare at the ugly, brown, dying mess…Get off your lazy booty and do some yard work! A beautiful yard is much easier to maintain than transforming a dying yard, but it is a process. You can’t jump from one to the other. You have to invest, give it time, energy, effort! Don’t be a quitter! Put on your gloves, grab some tools, and GET TO WORK!
Do what is right for you!
The things I invest in are going to be different than what you invest in. My stage of life with three boys under five is exhausting. They are fully reliant on me. There are many many things that I love to do that I have had to start saying “no” to. You see, right now, “no” is my best “yes.” Though I wish this was my own revelation it wasn’t…I read a book by Lysa TerKeurst, one of my favorite authors, titled The Best Yes and it rocked my world. I’ve always been a person who says no easily and with little to no guilt when I didn’t want to do something, but she takes it one step further. She challenges ladies to assess their current circumstances and then say “no” to things in order to say “yes” to other things. To make sure your time and energy is invested in the “best yes.” Seriously it is life changing. Some of the things you are currently doing are not necessarily bad, but I can bet money they are not your best yes!
Evaluate where your time is going and then decide if your schedule is too busy. Make time for the people that need the most attention, the relationships you want to flourish, the things that will last a lifetime. Don’t be busy, be focused and intentional. Now seriously go get the book! The Best Yes by Lysa TerKeurst. Read it! Apply it! Change yourself! (This was not supposed to be a book plug, but it kind of is…so just embrace it.)
