Yes.

The clock struck midnight… and it was January 1.  The dawn of a New Year.  A chance to start clean, a day filled with expectancy and lists of things hoped for in the year to come.

But most of all…. when midnight came…YES DAY.  The greatest day in the Hammett family.  The day that Liv gets to decide what we do.  Anything she dreams up or asks, within the law and the tight limits of our bank account, gets a YES!  We can’t say no.

And my little nugget…she gets it now y’all.  She ain’t dumb.

She had been begging for a late night snack on New Year’s eve.  She wanted a 15th piece of cake…and like great parents we had decided to cut her off at 14.  She had asked a thousand times in a row and each time got a no.  Poor thing…her life is rough.  Only 14 pieces of cake.

But when the clock struck midnight…she strutted into the kitchen as we all cheered and kissed and welcomed in the New Year…and she asked again for that piece of cake.

“No mam Liv.”  My steady-hand other half said, “I’ve told you no a hundred times.”

“But Papa….It’s after midnight….so it’s January 1st…which is Yes Day.”  She said as we stood stunned by her sheer brilliance.  It’s hard to even get mad when your kid is that dang smart.  Little swindler.

“so…Papa…can I have another piece of cake.”

“Why yes, Liv.  I guess you can.”

She got us on a technicality.

Yes Day started with a breakfast at IHOP.  She wanted to dress like a Unicorn on Yes Day and wanted to bring her “friends” to breakfast.  At said breakfast she wanted to eat more syrup than pancake… in her words exactly.

Over breakfast we talked about the day and what she was dreaming of doing.

She looked at me wide eyed and said, “I want to go to the jail and tell someone about Jesus.”

And my heart shattered into a million dang pieces on the IHOP floor.

 

I picked up my phone and called the jail…hoping they were open.  NOPE…closed.

I tried to pull some strings, explaining it was Yes Day and all… I can imagine the heavy eye roll from the warden as he hung up after telling me NO..because it was a national holiday.

“Bad news buddy.  The jail is closed today.”

“Phew…” she said… “I am so glad…I was nervous.”  Bless it.

She listed the rest of her day out:

Lunch at Twisted Root with unlimited root beer…a Yes Day tradition
Barnes and Noble for some book reading and a cookie (since a pattern)
She wanted to get a hotel room just to jump on the beds

And that’s what we did.  All of it.

Line by line we made our way down her long list of YES’S until we crashed exhausted, burned out on sugar and caffeine …bellies full from room service.

Thankful for the reminder of what a fresh wind YES can bring.
And thankful for a wide eyed grinning girl who sees the world with endless possibilities.

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I’ve been thinking about the word YES a lot.  It is such a powerful word.

But never is it more powerful than when it’s attached to Jesus.

“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.
That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”
2 Corinthians 1:20

Every promise God ever laid out for us…found their YES in Jesus.

Every single promise has a YES… an accomplisher, a finisher, a completer…Jesus lands all of those promises smack dab in the middle of our lives.

Find every promise of God and declare a big fat YES to it over your life.  Carry the banner of YES He does, He is, He will and always will be…Yes He can and Yes I am His.

What YES is He beckoning from you?  What path is the neon sign pointing to?  What freedom is out of our grasp right now?  What could be possible for us if we used that tiny word?

Yes is an action.  Yes starts movement…knocks over the first domino.

Every single thing that God asks you to do, every path He directs you on, every command of His word over your life… when we choose YES…we are forever changed.

There is not one YES said in the will of God that will end in any way but His glory being made known in your life.

YES lines us up to be exactly who He has created us to be.  Our YES to His YES…putting one foot in front of the other until He speaks and we say YES again.  Over and over again His Yes promises coupled with our Yes to His will.

There is no YES that is too much for you if He has asked it of you.  He will equip your YES.

” Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20

The ultimate expected YES from our life:  drag others to the feet of Jesus…showing them who He is…making disciples…raising up the dead and breathing life into them.
That is the YES that is assigned to us all.

And attached to our YES… HIS YES…that He will indeed be with us…at all times, always… perpetually, regardless of the circumstance, on every single occasion…
over and over again.

YES.  YES. YES.