An Intimate Moment with Mary and Martha

Sorry I'm so late posting today ladies. Right when I sat down to work on this post last night we had a line of thunderstorms that blew through at 65 mph so I had to get off the computer and stay off the rest of the night. You know THAT was fun!

Then, this morning, I came in to work early to write this post and wouldn't you know that every engineer known to man came in early TOO and every single one of them stopped to "chit chat" even though I was making my best "please do not bother me until the clock strikes 7:30" face!"

So...here it is - 11 am and I'm just now starting to write my post, although I wonder why I'm bothering because what is left to say after the post Claire just wrote! Holy cow, woman!

(hahaha)

Okay, the thing that stuck with me the most about this was that this story always seems to be a double edged sword to me. Remember what year it is ladies...and tell me that Martha wasn't right in assuming that Jesus wouldn't want the women out in the kitchen making dinner like every OTHER man! Of course Martha thought he would want a meal...that was basically their lot in life back then, was it not? To serve the men...to cook for the men...it sure wasn't in sitting down at a man's feet with other men and try to LEARN something.

So - it always kind of made me mad when he admonished her for wanting Mary out in the kitchen with her. IMHO, he should have gone out, told her to put the bread down and please just come visit with him - that he wanted her company more than her food - otherwise, how was she to know? All she knew was she was Cinderella and the other girl was going to the ball.

Now, that said...

***as I step off my soapbox***

I do get the point of the story and I totally love it. It reminds me of when my mother started to go through menopause and she came home for a visit and said how nice and clean my house was (of course, I had knocked myself out trying to get it ready for a "mom" visit...) and then she said, "Yeah, I don't clean much any more. I finally realized I had more important things to do with my time than dust every day. Your father hasn't seemed to notice so the heck with it...

I almost fell off my chair! My mom not spending her entire day cleaning? What???

And thus began my shift in attitude, also. Life IS too short to spend the whole day in the kitchen or doing "womens' work." I still can't stand to live in filth, but my shelves have maybe been dusted twice since Christmas because nobody cares if they have a little dust on them - especially JESUS and certainly not ME!

Now I put my love for Him first, my health and welfare second, my family and friends (and Gracie) third, and all the rest gets done when it gets done.

I did realize while reading this that my best friend and I make up the Mary/Martha mix. She'd be the first one to be in the middle of the party an I'd be out in the kitchen making all the appetizers! I think having some of both qualities is important but it's fun to see which of these two women you resemble most and then decide if this is the one you really LIKE best.

I am going to put a higher priority now on being MARY.