I'm continually hearing this reminder from my Savior. Here is the context: Martha had Jesus into her home to show hospitality and love for Him and His disciples. This is an important and necessary ministry, having people into our homes and serving them well within those walls. Her sister(Mary) was there as well and she was sitting at Jesus' feet listening to what He had to say while Martha worked to serve those in her home. Martha tries to entreat Jesus to rebuke Mary for her seeming selfish laziness, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand." Jesus responds with, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her." "One thing is necessary..." In that situation the one thing that was necessary was listening to the Lord speak while they still could. He would be gone soon. Moving on for His ministry and then eventually dead, raised, and gone Home to sit down from His work with God the Father! What a unique opportunity to sit and listen for such a short time. My mind is filled with thoughts on this but I just wanna share specifically how this applies to our lives, personally. What is necessary? Every moment this could change. Obviously, the overreaching most necessary thing is the Lord but we live in this world right now and we have ministries at hand that pull at our attention. It would be foolish, indeed, for me to sit and read my bible 12 hours a day and ignore my family, so this isn't what this passage is teaching. Placing the Lord in His rightful place in our lives does not mean that we sit and study all the time, it means that we do the work that He has put in front of us to do. Take this blog for instance. I haven't posted in over a month! My girls have been reminding me, "Mom! You need to post on the blog!" I value keeping documentation of what is going on with us and hoping that family and friends enjoy seeing up to date pictures, but it's not necessary. So when my plate is full with necessary things like homeschooling, hanging out with my husband, disciplining children, and sleep I can push the blog to the side for a time without "worrying or being upset". In church when I want to just sit and listen to the sermon unencumbered but my child is being disruptive, I have to weigh what is necessary right then. And then I leave with the child, because teaching that child how to behave in that moment is more important than ignoring his behavior and listening to the sermon. (I can easily listen to the podcast later!) It was so pretty outside a few days ago and the kids were all playing outside so I took my Romans bible study out there thinking I would work on it while I watched them play. I got one question done before I realized playing soccer for a while with them was going to minister to them better. Or at 5:45am when I would really like to sleep I weigh what is necessary and get up because reading my bible and praying for the day that is about to start is far more necessary than sleep right then. For this season, the only time I can get in the Word well is before my kids rise. When we have people over for dinner, we put dishes in the sink and then sit and talk with them because doing all after dinner chores can wait until after they leave. Or when we have friends staying with us from out of town, my bedtime of 9:30 is going to be pushed back because staying up late and talking to them is more necessary for that one night. Those are just the momentary decisions, we are also reevaluating a couple times a year and asking ourselves bigger questions about what is necessary. Should we homeschool this child another year? Do we have time to do a co-op this fall? Can I make this class work this semester? We seriously considered and prayed about myself getting a part-time job recently. On the whole, so that our family is not "worried and upset about many things" we keep things really simple. First, what is necessary, and then a few things that we value, nothing more. If I have too much on my plate then the really important things like energy to speak to a child about their heart toward their brother or teaching Bible or having free time for the kids to play outside gets pushed to the side. When something we prefer starts to cause worry or stress, I hear those words, "Martha, Martha..." and I reevaluate. With some Christmas money we spent a day at a local attraction place as a family. The place was empty and we had so much fun and it was cheap because we went during a week day while school was in. The kids wanted to be surprised by where we were going so they covered their eyes. Tender did go, but she is always the last to get in the van.
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LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
January 2022
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