Today is a repost day.
Do
you ever look around your house and see….
mountains
of laundry…
stacks
of dirty dishes…
a
layer of dust on everything…
the
crumbs of the snack you had 3 days ago on the carpet…
everything
everyone has carried into the house piled on the kitchen table or counter…
the
kids’ toys strung out from one end of the house to the other…
glasses
abandoned with an inch or so of (now unidentifiable) liquid?
It
just makes you want to put your head down and cry sometimes, doesn’t it? Or maybe you try to ignore it by leaving the house or turning on the
television or computer? Whatever
your method of coping, I can be fairly sure you’re also stressed. That’s
just a fact of life for us women. We get a lot of pressure from the world
and let’s be honest, even if we’re Christians, we get pressure from other
Christian women to be the “perfect” Proverbs 31 or Titus 2 Woman.
I know
that isn’t the intent of those lovely women of God who write books and blogs on
the subject. They are trying to help us get it right, but it can make
those of us out here in the trenches feel like we don’t measure up, which brings
even more stress than the wet towels covering the bathroom floor.
We
feel like we always need to be doing. If we could just get organized and
keep on top of everything, we’d feel better about ourselves and our homes and
we’d be able to relax. We just know it!
Has
that ever worked out for you? It hasn’t for me. I usually end up
feeling more stressed if I can’t get ahead and do what I think I should be
doing and then in my stressed out state I get grouchy and act in ways I later
regret.
So,
what’s a busy, overwhelmed woman to do?
Sit
down.
Seriously.
Look
at Luke 10:39-42 (NIV)
39She had a sister called Mary,
who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by
all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord,
don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to
help me!”
41“Martha,
Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42but
few things are needed—or indeed only one.f Mary has chosen what is
better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Martha
was stressing over all the work that needed to be done to care for her guests.
Mary, on the other hand, put off her work to sit at Jesus’ feet and
listen to him. When Martha complained bitterly about the unfairness of
it, Jesus told her that it was Mary who was in the right and implied that
Martha should stop and spend time at his feet as well.
And
that is what we need to do FIRST. The
laundry will still need washing, dinner will still need to be prepared, the
floors will still need to be mopped, but not until after we spend time with the
Lord.
It
has taken me a lot of years to learn that and put it into practice, but I can’t deny
that my days go much smoother when I take the time to read the Word and pray
first and do you know what I pray for? I ask the Lord to order the hours
of my days that those things He wants me to accomplish will fit in my day and
that the Holy Spirit would help me do those things keeping in mind that
whatever I do I do for Him and His glory.
When
I do this, the day is more relaxed and everything just seems to fall into place
without stress. It is when I forget that I find myself getting frazzled,
but it’s never too late to stop at the point you are at and ask the Lord to
help you get your priorities straight. He is the ultimate organizer of
our lives.
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