Is it Okay to Say No?

If someone asks you to do something or if they can have something is it okay to say no? Absolutely it is.

I feel like there’s this pressure to please others while displeasing ourselves, like it’s our penance to pay for unrelated things. I was raised Catholic, so doing “things” to make up for sins we feel bad about is a real concept I was also raised around and I hate to say it, but it is not really a good way to think. Catholic guilt is real.

“If I let this person talk me into this thing I decided I didn’t want to do, it’ll make up for that other thing I did that I shouldn’t have done in the first place.” Hard no on that.

Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. The Bible says it clear as day and it’s a very freeing way to live. I’m not suggesting be completely selfish, but I am suggesting that if your reason for saying no or yes is well thought out, let it stand.

Just because someone asks you the same question 57 times thinking the 57th time they’ll change your mind, or just because you have a guilty conscience for completely unrelated things does not mean you deserve to have your own decision devalued.

You change your own sins by learning from them and not doing them any more. Giving your favorite sweater to the person audacious enough to ask you repeatedly has nothing to do with it and that shouldn’t make you feel bad.