"It's not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What's hard is figuring out what you are willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about."- Shauna Niequist

Welcome to Week #3 of our Say Yes Series! We've talked about saying yes. Ruth shared her family mission statement, and I talked about family as our primary ministry.

Let's take it a step further.

1.Find some time to be alone and quiet for a few minutes and pray.

2.Get a piece of paper and write VISION at the top.

3. Write down all the things the Lord brings to mind regarding a vision for your life and home. Look back on your family mission statement. Kat at Inspired to Action has a great tool to use as well. This will be your "vision board".

“Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.”Psalm 39:4

Here is mine for this year:

4. Take an honest look at your commitments, schedule, and time management. How do these things line up with your vision board? What changes do you need to make?

5. Take a minute to jot down your priorities in order of importance. This is how you choose what to say yes to, and what to let go.

Here are my priorities in order:

- time alone with the Lord, cultivating my relationship with Him, time to be still in His presence

- a girlfriend and cheerleader to my husband....one that is NICE and KIND

- a fun, loving mom and teacher who has TIME.

- exercise, getting out in creation

- simple, beautiful housekeeping and homemaking-clean, organized, simple, healthy

- caring friend-available for hospitality, meals, watching kids

- reading and journaling

-reaching out and sharing God's love with others {which includes blogging}

Ordering things according to importance is incredibly freeing. When I have to choose, the top priorities always come first.

You can easily see what needs to take precedence in your life. To take this a step further, you can create a schedule for your life based around these things. The best tool I have seen for this is the ebook, Tell Your Time.

6. Now, you have to actually say NO. Armed with these tools, you can easily see what doesn't line up.

"A mother’s time is precious. Every new responsibility we take on dilutes our effectiveness in our other roles. We must guard our energy, time and family wisely." -Kat, Inspired to Action

My motto this year is: Do a few things well. Or, put another way, Do fewer things and do them better.

We can't do it all ladies, so why not focus on doing our top priorities well? Doing things well takes time. Again, don't underestimate how much time it really does take!

"With our pitchers we attempt sometimes to water a field, not a garden." -Anne Morrow Lindbergh

To do this week: Determine what your garden is, and water it well.

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