Our family car died back in February. It had done us proud. Trips to France. Pushchairs in and out and in and out again. Several car sickness incidents. Scrapes and knocks and bumps.

And then it was gone. And for a little bit, I felt sad. Sad for all the memories.

And then we bought my bright yellow sporty skoda – and all hint of remorse was gone!

I’m not one for going very fast but I must confess that I love that I can pull away quickly at roundabouts and gone are the days of getting overtaken before you’ve even had a chance to pick up speed.

So yesterday I was out and about, meeting with the carpenter about Give A Brick (so exciting – but that’s another story) buying flowers for my sister (she turned 30) and popping said flowers up to her house, so they’d be there waiting for her when she got home from work.

And it was as I was tootling along the motorway, singing Christmas carols (stop it! One of my errands was Christmas related so I get a pass!) that I noticed I wasn’t breaking the speed limit.

If you’re a police officer, look away now …

OK, so now it’s just us, I’ve got to tell you, I have a bit of a tendency to drive too fast sometimes. Safely. But fast.

So it was something of a surprise to notice that I was going along, quite happily, slightly under the speed limit. Under the speed limit? What’s that about?!?

And then as another car overtook me, a thought popped in my head:

Just because you can go fast doesn’t mean you must.

And so I didn’t. I sat there, dancing in my seat to my music, taking in the scenery, it was all very nice.

And of course then I thought about you and how this relates to life. Because us girls are great at multi-tasking aren’t we? (Actually, don’t tell my husband but I’m really not. I do everything kind of half-assed when I multi-task but hey, we’ve gotta pretend eh?) Most women though are of the stronger, more dependable sort than me.

Maybe you’re like that and always seem to have three different things on the go at once?

If so, I wanted to encourage you today to slow down a little. Yes, we’ve heard it all before … slow down and enjoy they journey, blah, blah, blah. And be honest … sometimes you hear that and think, “come on, if you only knew what I’m having to deal with!”

And you’re right, I don’t know what you have to deal with today. And yes, you probably have so many demands on you, it feels like if you slow down any, you’ll drop everything. It’s only momentum that’s keeping you going!

But I want you to encourage you to try it anyway. Even if it’s just for today, or even a few moments of today.

You’re wonderful and brilliant and so, so capable. You were made for so much more than just rushing from one thing to the next.

But just because you can keep going so fast, doesn’t mean you must.

Driving a car at full throttle will wreck the engine. You’re much, much stronger than any machine but even you really would find life a little bit more sparkly if you could take your foot off the gas from time to time.

And so that’s your challenge for today. Are you game? Get to it!