Don't Do It All - Kristin Sterk

As women, many of us have this nagging and constant tapping on the shoulder, telling us we need to do more. And more. Telling us we need to go to this. Telling us we need to make that. Telling us we need to look like this. Telling us we need to commit to that. Telling us that we need to do it all.

But I am telling you, one of the BEST decisions you could make, is choosing to NOT do it all.

Your husband will thank you. Your children will thank you. Your friends will thank you. And you will thank yourself.

This is a constant problem for me. Every day is filled with choices we need to make. They are inescapable. They are unavoidable. It’s just life. Commitments needs to be made, questions need to be answered, and projects need to be completed. But have you ever thought about how much our mentality of needing to “do it all” has really negatively effected every area of our lives?

The other day, I was busy getting ready for our garage sale and I kept having this nagging thought, telling me I needed to stop and make dinner, clean up the house, and exercise. 3 things that in a normal week, I could and would enjoy doing. Things that I find enjoyable. But as I looked at the boxes that needed to get unpacked, I realized those 3 things just were not going to happen. This fabulous dinner was not going to be put on the table. In fact, that night all I did was melt a block of cheese melt (Aldi version of Velveeta of course) on some noodles. added some milk, and made mac ‘n cheese. And you know what the best part was? When my husband said, “this is really good, it’s so creamy!”

I could feel this content smile come across my face, almost in laughter form, realizing that for our family, I did not need to make these glamorous meals – let’s be honest, Mazy doesn’t like glamorous food anyways. I know we had crumbs all over the floor and I had to get some sweat running down my face again, but we just can’t do it all. And that’s okay.

When we try and do it all, we only end up disappointing, well, EVERYONE. We disappoint our family because our time is spread so thin, we disappoint ourselves because we always think we should be more and do more, and we disappoint those around us because we do not have time for them, with our over-committed schedules already.

It’s just not worth it.

So what’s the solution? Don’t try to do it all! Look at your schedule. Look at your commitments. Look at what you say yes to. What can you cut out? What can you say no to NEXT time? I am not saying you need to call everyone and back out, but what can you not commit to next time? There is NOTHING wrong with kicking up your feet for 5 or look out, even 10 minutes, to just take a break. There is nothing wrong with pulling out a book and having some mommy time. There is nothing wrong with going to bed at 9:17 pm because your body just said “enough”. The dishes can wait. The crumbs could sit there one more day (since let’s be honest, they’ve been there for 3 days already). The nice meal you wanted to make could wait another day too, when you will actually enjoy making it.

Don’t try to do it all – that is no where in the Bible, though we think it is and tell ourselves it is. What IS in the Bible is that there is a time and season for everything under the sun.

Take a deep breath, let it out, and just BE.

If you have a question that you have always wondered about me, blogging, cooking, youth ministry, parenting, you name it, I am going to be doing some blog posts about what my readers have always wondered! Here are a few ways to submit a question (I already have some GREAT questions, so don’t hesitate to ask):