Say Yes to Conviction!Sample

Warren Buffett once said, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” That quote stayed with me for a long while. It stirred something deep inside—especially because it’s easy to admire these men from a distance and to be fascinated by their life, influence and success… but it's much harder to live the principle behind that statement.

“Saying No”. That’s the part not many want to do.

This aspect of saying Yes or No is a huge deal, it is especially hard for us Indians to say YES or NO and keep that word because of our cultural upbringing – this explains Indian Stretchable Time; most people play ping pong with their yes and no until the last minute and they all want to rush because they just decided something, that also explains why everyone on our roads is honking!

Let me tell you why I think this matters. A LOT! Especially again, for us as Christians brought up in the Indian subcontinent - a place of diverse culture and infusion.

These days, if you’re between 15 and 35, most of your decisions are under surveillance— maybe also by the government, but most definitely by your people. Family, society, friends, Instagram followers, neighbours, colleagues, cultural aunties, and religious uncles. They’ll watch your every move and comment on your every plan. And many of us have started living in fear of that gaze. We're not actually deciding anymore—we’re just reacting like a sailboat, trying to sail along with the expectations of the people around us mostly because we find it difficult to do otherwise and deal with all the pressure that comes from saying NO! Pressure from the people we love and like to be around;

It's much easier to ignore the people that hate you.

Than to disagree with the people you love.

See, if you’ve ever felt like:

Your simple commitments are not honoured. (Ignoring your conviction, your diet, schedule)
Your only option is to say yes when sudden plans come up because they can use guilt as a means to pressure you.
Your financial choices are shaped more by family expectations than personal conviction from your faith.
Your career is being influenced by comparisons and suggestions instead of calling.
Your life's timeline is being set by relatives (about marriage, big purchases etc)
Your mental peace is cluttered with trying to please relatives rather than pursuing your purpose.
You’re afraid to say “I don’t know” when people from church or relatives ask about your future.
Moving to the US or Canada—because your cousin’s life looks better.

Then this message is for you.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you should be a selfish, self-centred rebel. NO! That's not what I'm trying to say… I am saying that when we become adults we have to behave like adults. Something what separates adults from children is that adults are capable of their own decisions… now, whether that decision is good or bad is not for me to talk about in this booklet. However, if you love Jesus, believe in him, have learnt of Wisdom and are making decisions that are based in good character., then, in all things praise the Lord for this is the will of God! (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

So often we still behave like kids in the bodies of 35-year-olds and let the elderly people in our family make our decisions – which most times comes not from a conviction of faith but from the pressure they also feel from church folk, relatives, friends etc., What my booklet is talking about is to say no to the pressure, saying no to the things that are decided not by conviction and faith… I would love to see a church that is so driven by faith that even the fear of failure is not there because they believe that the Lord will lift them up… basically to own up to their faith and behave like adults!

Did you also know? You could honour your family and parents and still set boundaries with them. HAHA! Yes, you can!

This booklet is adapted from a sermon I preached—but it’s more than a sermon. I want it to be a shift in your lifestyle so that you will say NO to the things/people that are not immediately important so that your YES (conviction) will become much stronger. A shift for you to start drawing a line. A shift from passive living to powerful believing.

Here is what my coach tells me alllll the tiimee!!
He says, “What you tolerate, you train!” That's very true!

I hope that by reading this very small booklet you can stop tolerating things that do not support your YES – Starting with a thin line, which will automatically become a bigger much more noticeable boundary which the people around you will eventually honor. But, being in the culture of India, I'm sure, there will still be quite a few family and church folk that will cross the boundaries you set but that’d be more of a crazy story than an annoyance! Like a hair in a nice lamb lasagna! Crazy!

So what I'm trying to say is we have to identify that we live in a culture where our families say yes for us, our friends say yes for us, and our boss says yes for us—and by the time we realize it, we’ve said yes to everything except the one thing that mattered: our personal conviction (faith).

Here I am to tell you, that your faith begins with a NO.

To me – That's powerful!