What Does the Lord Look For?

Today's post comes from my current read, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World," by Joanna Weaver.





Are you a little bit Mary and a little bit Martha? Or, as in my case, a whole lot of Martha?! Read on for encouragement. God doesn't expect us to live in any extreme, but he does expect us to be transformed from either extreme as we grow closer to Him. We can have balance in our lives if we learn how to.

Ms. Weaver says:

"(God) isn't looking as much for workers as he is looking for sons and daughters--a people to pour his life into."

..."When we put work before worship, we put the cart before the horse. The cart is important; but the horse must come first, or we end up pulling the cart ourselves. Frustrated and weary, we can nearly break under the pressure of service, for there is always something that needs to be done."

"When we first spend time in his presence--when we take time to hear his voice--God provides the horsepower we need to pull the heaviest load. He saddles up Grace and invites us to take a ride."

Amen to that.

Later she adds, .."Good news is woven through the New Testament in a grace-filled strand that shines especially bright in the Gospel stories of Mary and Martha. The message is this: Salvation isn't about what I do; it's about what Jesus did."

I don't know about you, but these are good thoughts for me to begin my day with!
Warmest blessings,

Linore

People Before Things

Who would have thought I'd find a lesson in my re-reading of Sense and Sensibility that actually dove-tails with themes the Lord has been keeping me focused on lately? Specifically, the importance of being a Mary in a Martha world. (If you scroll down, you'll see a few posts on this theme.)

In chapter six of S&S, just after we have been introduced to Lady Middleton, whose shortcoming is that despite being elegant and well-mannered, she is devoid of intelligent conversation, Austen says,

"Lady Middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table and of all her domestic arrangements, and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties."

Austen's point here is that Lady Middleton is wholly occupied, entertained, and concerned with the appearance and quality of her table--rather than the people surrounding it.
With her usual brilliance, JA recognizes that this is vanity.

We women love to rationalize our occupation with appearances, the beauty of our house, our cooking, as simply trying to do our best. We put pride in what we provide for our family, and in the way we take pains to decorate. This is natural and even necessary--to a degree.
Go beyond that degree, however, and it borders on nothing less than vanity.

There are times when I have been so worried about the appearance of my home that I have made the rest of the family miserable! Talk about getting priorities out of order--I get them completely backwards at times.

There's a magnet I've seen that sort of sums it up. It says: People Before Things.
It's also a good way to check my priorities from time to time. I ask myself, "Am I spending my time and effort more on people or on things? (the house, the shopping, myself, my goals, even my books)? Jesus' focus was always on people, not things. And he certainly has the right to expect us to put Him first--for he is not just "people", not just a person, but very God!

How about you? What makes it most difficult for you to put Him first, or to put "people before things" in your life?

MARY Vs. MARTHA--REVISITED


Isn't it amazing how much can be wrapped up in a single scripture verse? Take the following, for instance:

"If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised." 1 Peter 4:11

Thinking more about Mary and Martha this week, (and how I tend to be such a "Martha personality") I couldn't help but wonder: Had Martha been serving with the strength God provided, would the Lord still have given her that gentle, earnest rebuke? I doubt there would have been any need to. Martha would not have opened herself to it.

When she went to Christ with her complaint, she was not seeking His strength. She was seeking, instead, to get Mary off her lazy tush so that she could bustle about and lighten Martha's load. Her eyes were on MARY and what she perceived as laziness; If she had been at all spiritually minded just then, she might have stopped to consider that mary was engaged in an important activity: She was actively listening to the Lord of Creation!

You could argue that maybe Martha didn't fully realize who Christ was; But she called him "Lord."

She tells him after her brother died that if He had only been there, he could have prevented the death. So she knows He is God.

Martha's problem, on that fateful day when her personal complaint was recorded for all of history, was that she wasn't thinking spritually--about God's provision--but only of herself.

Oh! As a mom in a household of seven people, I am often a Martha.
I look at my family and think, "Why aren't they doing more?"
If they were sitting at the feet of Jesus (or even reading their Bibles or praying) I could
handle it with peace, I think. But when they are watching TV or playing computer games, or reading, I believe I am correct in making them get moving to do their share.

Nevertheless, it sometimes feels like a tightrope walk: trying to remain conscious of the resources God gives me to be a mom and 'domestic engineer.' Or to discern whether I am falling into total self-reliance, forgetting to serve in God's strength. And what about the days when I look around and think, "Well, I don't have the strength to do all that needs to be done, so I guess it just won't get done," instead of seeking HIS strength.

Finding the balance of where I begin and end, and where God's help comes in, is not always immediately possible. For me, that is.

How do you do it? Will you share a story or incident, or your own take on this? I'd love to hear it!
Blessings,

Linore
PS: The text size refuses to behave and stay small. Does anyone else have this problem with Blogger?


photo from Fotosearch