”In the course of their journey he came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking. Now Martha, who was distracted with all the serving, came to him and said, ’Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.’ But the Lord answered, ’Martha, Martha,’ he said, ’you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.’ ”
– Luke 10:38-42
There is a book titled, ”Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.” Although I have not read it, I have heard great things about it. The book is based from the preceding verses. Many times our hearts yearn to be like Mary – to drop everything that going on and simply sit at the Lord’s feet to listen to Him speak to you – but we are being told to be a Martha – serving and doing and never ceasing.
In my first blog I told you that times away from my husband (which are often and can be long) are times that the Lord really uses to teach me. This particular deployment the Lord is teaching me about simplicity. I do have a Mary heart, but I get caught up in a Martha world.
July 17, 2012 was a wonderful day. Our second child, Joanna, was born. She is such a blessing, but with her comes the craziness of having two children. August 28, 2012 made it that much harder. I woke up that morning for the first day of a 9 month deployment with two small children (ages 22 months and 6 weeks at that time). I quickly realized that I needed to simplify my life. I have always said ”yes” to everyone and I quickly realized that I needed to start ”de-cluttering” the things in my life that were not important. I began to pray that the Lord would lead me to simplify my life and to give me the strength to do it. Well, he answered my prayer in a big way – and not in the way that I would have thought.
I began a Bible study on simplicity. It is a wonderful book and was getting me thinking about what areas of my life are more important and what things can be set aside for later. It came at the perfect time since my maternity leave was ending and returning to work (even though it was part-time) would further complicate things. That’s when God chose to answer my prayer. The lady who was supposed to watch my children while I returned to work backed out 4 calendar days before I was to return to work. It was a shock to say the least. I went to work immediately and let them know what had happened and then I began to look into every other option possible. To my surprise, I wasn’t worried about it and wasn’t freaking out (I like to think its because God had already taught me that I can’t plan things and to go with His plan – see my previous blog post for that story: http://partofthemiracle.com/starting-out/). I kept telling myself that if it was God’s plan for me to return to work, then I would find another solution. If every door was closed, then God needed me to be home with my kids. Well, EVERY SINGLE door was closed. I don’t believe that that was a coincidence (and if you knew the number of places and people that I called, then you wouldn’t either). Instead, I realized that God was simplifying my life for me.
Reading these verses in Luke have made me realize that God has given me an hour and a half each day to live out my Mary heart. The plan was for me to leave for work during Timothy’s afternoon nap. Now, I have that time just for me to spend with the Lord. What a blessing.
