I have been working on a book for 6 or 7 years about peace through simplicity, tentatively titled "Finding Peace… a 31 day journey to simplifying your life."  It's been an interesting journey from a life of utter chaos and stress, to a life that has plenty of external stress (deadlines, deadlines, deadlines!) and yet very little internal stress or chaos. 

Those of you who have come to know me, might guess that my life is anything but simple — and you'd be right.  Simplicity as a concept can be fairly easy to grasp, but as something I can actually do… it's a lot harder to implement.  Hmmm, do you think that might be why I'm still working on the book 7 years later…?  

I don't want to "preach" something that I haven't been doing!  But in reality my life is much simpler today than when I began.  I've learned that no matter what I think, I'm not super woman!  I do have limits and I've learned to stay within those limits or perhaps live even a little below them.  I've started building in down time to my schedule for those urgent requests, sicknesses or any other unexpected crisis' that inevitably hit my life.

The first principle I learned about simplicity is that siimple doesn't necessarily equal easy.  When I began to simplify my life, it was less a matter of throwing out extra things from my closet (a simple task) and more of throwing out extra, non-meaningful tasks out of my life (a difficult task to say the least).  It was about evaluating what is even eligible to be removed from my life… no, I'm sorry teenagers can't be left out at the curbside for the goodwill to pickup!

Here's the criteria I began to use in analyzing what I wanted to accomplish.  I wanted each day of my life to have a lasting meaning and purpose.  I wanted my work to be enjoyable and meaningful.  Even though I have the privilege of working at my passion, trust me it is still work.  I wanted each day of my life to be of eternal value to the Lord and His kingdom.  I wanted to have joyful memories left at the end of each day rather than have them blow by me with nothing more than a completed check list to show for them.  I wanted to end each day knowing those I love a little bit better and THEM knowing I loved them a little bit more as well. 

I wanted to do things that I HAD to do with a better attitude of heart, eliminate the things I DIDN'T HAVE to do a little bit at a time, and ADD INTO my schedule things that brought me joy and pleasure, even if it were only for a few minutes in each day.  Big goals, big tasks… where was I going to begin?

I'm going to start sharing that journey with you a little bit each day.  This will be in addition to my other posts on art, gardening, quilting, crafting etc.  It's going to be a little hard to figure out how to break up such a huge topic into doable daily segments, but I'm going to give it a try!  Please feel free to email me with any issues that come to mind as you read, especially any issues you might be struggling with and would like to have addressed.  This blog will be most effective when it is a dialog between all of our hearts.

STRATEGY #1 A TWO LETTER WORD THAT CAN BRING INSTANT RELIEF

I learned a two letter word that stopped overcommitment in its tracks like Raid stops bugs… "NO!"  I don't think that my mouth even knew how to form the word.  "It will only take me a minute, I might as well say yes," was my natural thought process when I was asked to do something.  Too often I found my mouth saying "Yes" while my heart was screaming, "No!!!!"  Then I would simmer with frustration and resentment while I did the task with a less than joyful heart.  Slowly, I learned that "NO" could be a perfectly acceptable answer to a question, and I was the only one that could really make me feel guilty about saying it.   

When I began my journey to find peace in my life, I wanted RESULTS NOW!!!  I was at wit's end and was so anxious for the change that it seemed terriby,horribly, painfully slow to start.  That was because I had become so overcommitted it was impossible to do all that was required of me, let alone do it well.  

I chose to end my commitments slowly, because I was determined to do it with honor, so that I didn't let anyone down in the process.  It tooks months for the first tiny changes to happen, then one by one I removed old commitments and actually resisted adding new ones in their place.  A word of warning here, some people will not take kindly to your new strategy.  The ones that are most incapable of saying "No" themselves, also know how to lean pretty hard on anyone easily guilt manipulated into saying "Yes."  Knowing it's the right thing to do for your life, your family, your peace and to serve the Lord more effectively, will give you the strength to follow through.

I'll leave you with a thought that haunted me when I was struggling to gain control over my schedule.  It would come to my mind often, "If I can't learn to say 'No' to man, will I put myself into a position where it's likely I'll be saying 'No' to God instead?" 

Audrey Jeanne Roberts