Good, Better, or Best?

As I sat in the car waiting for the girls to come out of school from Muscial Theater practice (ending after next weekends huge performance thankfully) I found myself talking to a girlfriend. Im wore out, I told her. Its not just that working, taking the kids to and from school, and going back and forth from California to Arizona, Im just wore OUT. I say yes to way to many things for the kids and I have to learn to just say NO. She smiled and offered me some advice. Funny thing is, I use to teach on this advice. She told me this: "Ask" yourself from now on, is it good, better or best?" She went on to say it was "usually the 'good' choices in life that took away from the best". Today there are so many things available for our children to participate in, far greater then when I was a child, and my mother still can't believe what my children have as choices compared to when she was a child. The best things in life, usually don't make us second guess ourselves. We dont find ourselves wore out running to and from participating in the best things that we sign ourselves or the children up for. The better things will wear us down a bit, but its the good things in life we need to watch out for. The good things are the extra play dates, extra tutoring, extra curricular activities that we just dont need in our lives. This comment has left me questioning all of what I have been doing as of lately and I am starting to see how this really lays out in my life to be true.

Andrew was in Awana's with a new church this year (at the beginning of the school year). It was a better choice then we had, but not the best. I've dropped him from this program. Last night I took him to the old church we use to attend, a smaller church youth group. He came home beaming. The church we attend on weekends is a 'Mega church' and his personality can get lost in the crowd. That would have been a good choice had I started taking him there on Wednesday nights. Last night, I was wore out. Running the kids all over, working 6 hours, cleaning the house, laundry and all the things I still need to do around here and then taking him off to church at 7pm and picking him up at 9pm. I didn't want to leave, but it didn't hurt to do it. I was wore out, but it was the best choice so I wasn't questioning myself like I was on Sunday afternoons driving him to Awanas. Best choice made sense over the good.

What I need to do now is start to ask myself, is it best, better or just good? I signed up Ashley for Volleyball after Spring Break. The one hang up is that there is practice on Wednesday nights, the same night and time as Awana. Awana will have to be dropped. I'm confident that Volleyball is a greater choice over the Awana's. It is hard for me to say that since its making a choice to be athletic over learning more about the Bible. But in this instance, I feel confident that she will get more out of participating in Volleyball then in this particular Awana group. Im sad about Awana's ending. It use to be the best choice I had for my children, its dropped down to just a good choice. Looking ahead I want to make only the best choices for my children, but that isn't always as easy to do as it is to say.