No, thank you <3
I am constantly learning from our children and today’s post is gleaned from time spent with Rachel and her four on various outings and hanging around the house.
She has been a “boy mom” for seven years now and God bless her, she does it well.
I never had brothers and so I was not familiar with the delicacies of the indelicacies that seem to accompany the formative years of the male population of planet earth.
We had our boy after six years raising two daughters and they co-mommed with me so I never had the full brunt of what it is to bring up a boy.
Some of the things that they seem prone to talk about and do can throw me into a state of panic about the future of their social acceptability, but Rachel has an expression she uses in a polite tone to let them know they need to stop but not give them the satisfaction of grossing her out to the point of incapacity.
On any given occasion of inappropriate speech or activity, she will calmly pass by and just say, “No, thank you.”
I like that.
And I find it helpful in my daily life when situations arise that I can choose to react to
(with fits and rants and other unhealthy emotions)
or respond to
(with a simple…No, thank you…I am not accepting this one)
So for Wednesday Randoms…here are five of my latest applications:
<3 The lure of pseudo-relationships offered through social media.
Every. Single. Day.
I try to make it a point to limit my scrolling to about ten or so posts down into Facebook, check my notices for group messages and move on.
Ain’t nobody got enough time to find out what every body is doing today.
Same for the twenty emails I get in my inbox each day. If I am not planning to shop because I don’t really need anything, I delete the amazing sale that is being offered.
50% off Photo books through Sunday? I don’t have time to even download my photos to the computer, let alone compose a book.
No, thank you.
<3 The pit of self-condemning thoughts. This is a constant battle for me as I am usually running a replay of every conversation I have just walked away from.
On analyzing what I said and didn’t say, I am sure to long for a redo of the entire exchange.
This downward spirals into a self-analysis that would make critics of The Donald look kind.
Highlighting all my failures in a way that borders on negative self-exaltation?
No, thank you.
<3 Too much of anything, even if it’s a good thing.
This goes along with the first one, but I subscribe to a lot of devotions and blog posts and follow a lot of inspirational people on Instagram. But that doesn’t mean I have time to read each and every one, each and every day.
God sprinkles wisdom and encouragement through so many sources.
I have to be discerning of His movement or I could spend my whole day crouched over my phone reading inspiration and miss the moments of engagement He was preparing me to be a part of that are happening around me.
Guilt for deleting four out of five teachings or not signing up for the next Bible study or ordering the book?
No, thank you.
<3 Provocation from loud voices pressing their issues onto me.
We live in an age where every single human being has easy access to gaining the public forum to air whatever campaign they have joined.
But I cannot take up all the causes of all the people.
I don’t want to be insensitive and I don’t want to close myself off from understanding real woundings and injustice, but there is a proliferation of attempts to raise my awareness of things that I don’t even deal with.
I can be sympathetic or empathetic towards those who are affected, but living in angst over the plight of some situation over which I have absolutely no personal encounters, control or interaction?
No, thank you.
If you are feeling stretched thin by too much of something that is being pushed on you, maybe it is time to realize you do have some control over what you allow yourself to be exposed to and just politely say….No, thank you <3