Hearts of Christian HomeKeepers™

I Want to be  a Mary!

I love mornings! I love them very early, dark, and completely quiet. I don’t particularly care for them any other way. If I sleep late and everyone is up and running before I am, it sets my whole morning askew and can, if I let it, put me out of sorts. It’s like being in gym class and running at the rear of the pack, trying to keep up with the crowd while struggling to put one foot in front of the other. When you finally arrive at the end of the course, everyone else is rested and fresh while you’re still staggering and disheveled. For me, that’s not a good way to start the day.

I admit I like to be in the front of things. I like to have time to prepare for my day, to spend time in God’s word, to pray, and journal my thoughts. Without taking my morning nourishment from my Father’s provision, I am ill-prepared to meet the challenges of my calling. I need this time to surrender the day to my heavenly Father and to surrender my heart anew. I know this–both from the Word and from experience; however, I confess that I fail to come to His banqueting table more often than not. Before I lay my day at His feet, I find myself puttering around the kitchen, putting things away or starting a batch of laundry, making coffee, starting a fire in the wood stove–all the while “getting ready” to spend time with Him. In effect, I take charge of things rather than letting them go.

Once the family arises and conversations begin, breakfast must be prepared and eaten, chores must be assigned, schoolwork laid out and supervised, and just like in gym class–I’m at the back of the pack wondering how everything got away from me. Why is it so much easier to putter around in preparation for devotions than to ignore everything else while I meet with my Master? The truth is that I suffer from the sin of procrastination. Yes, I’m calling it sin because that’s what it is in my life and I need to simply confess it. Instead of obediently following my Father’s clear instruction and the perfect example of His Son, I pick up other things. They do not rob me of time with the Lord; rather, I sacrifice the time!

I am chagrined that I am far more like Martha than like Mary:

“…and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations…the Lord said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’”

Everything that I am bothering with will pass away, will be undone before tomorrow, or will certainly wait; but the part I am sacrificing–the good part–would never be taken away!

Oh Father, teach me to take up the good part and to let everything else wait~ Keep me from allowing the responsibilities you’ve given me to take priority over my first responsibility, which is to sit at Your Son’s feet to listen to Your word and to be obedient to it! Amen.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 7:05 am and is filed under The Christian Woman's Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.