Your Yes Can Change Someone's Trajectory

Don’t take that lightly.

Unsplash photo by Lee

I’m a words girlie. There’s a section of my Notes app dedicated to quotes that make me pause, think and savor.

Scrolling through my quotes section I found words I wrote to myself in December 2021:

“You have been given tremendous power to do good, Nicole. Your yes can change someone’s trajectory.”

I'm still sinking in to those words. They've proven true in ways only God knew. I can’t recall the context around them at the time, but they’ve aged well and have deeper meaning for me 4.5 years later.

My yeses usually are not loud, but they carry weight. My yeses of support, humility, obedience, affirmation, family, leadership, stillness and community have changed the trajectory of lives around me, including my own.

The outcomes rarely, if ever, make it to an annual performance review. I don’t live my life out loud online, so you won’t see it there either. But the deep satisfaction that comes from knowing I’ve responded when God told me to is more rich, satisfying and long lasting than anything I could have tried on my own or taken credit for. Those series of yeses have been character-building moments for me over a lifetime.

At times, my yes has felt ... too much, too risky and uncomfortable (aka scary). Not every yes, but a healthy dose of them, remind me that my yes has power. My yes is bigger than me.

Quick 2-minute detour here because this Essence Atkins podcast interview captures how God changes us through our yes:

And the thing about God is He makes a bigger splash of your YES than you ever could. He takes it farther, makes it more meaningful and elevates you in ways that a title or boss could neh-ver. No one can take that away from you — not even insecurities or doubts. And that’s on Mary had a little lamb (IYKYK).

This beautiful and complicated life I live is a gift with a defined beginning and end. I say that not to be morbid but to steward my life well.

A yes to one thing means a no to other things. That’s called balance. It’s hard but necessary. Let the Lord lead and help you recalibrate when you’ve gone too far on either end.

Your yes can change someone’s trajectory. It already has. I’m excited for all the good this world will experience because of it.