When I wake up in the morning there are about 25 things running through my head. There are so many tasks to be accomplished. I have not mastered the art of mornings... As a wife, a mother, and a business owner... life is busy, and at any given time there are maybe one hundred things that I should or could be doing... I wake up and think about doing little girls hair, getting them dressed appropriately and adorably, feeding my family... what is for dinner tonight? Do I have a shoot today? Who do I need to email? Who am I meeting with today? Do I have childcare covered? Does my husband feel supported and cared for?? Did Ellie get her homework done? Have I prepared well enough to get my family through this day??
It's important to prioritize things... but so often we get our priorities catawampus, or even upside-down. We all do it. Check out this story from Luke.
This year has been a year of reprioritizing for me. I read this story a few months ago, and it made me realize a lot about how I had been living my life. I'd wake up and feel defeated because of all of the hundred things I needed to be doing... and I knew that I could not accomplish every single thing.
Sometimes I feel like Martha... sometimes I feel like Mary... but I so desperately want to act like Mary.
When I was in university I had this friend who hadn't grown up following Christ, and had been following Him for just a few short years when I met her. Ashley's passion to know the Lord and to be known by Him was infectious. One day we were walking across campus to go to class... or maybe just leaving class.. and she said to me, "I've decided that I am not going to feed my body until I've had my 'daily bread'. I need to feed my soul before I feed myself."
It has been thirteen years since that conversation. We are both married, and we both have kiddos. All those many years ago that we studied together and broke bread together and learned about who God is together... those years have come and gone and we now live two thousand miles apart and our lives are completely different. Life has it's challenges and difficulties in university. You are learning how to be an adult person, and studying and writing papers and doing research projects... or learning how to be a conceptual artist (my personal main university dilemma). We longed to be out of school and to live our "real" lives. The grass is always greener on the other side, isn't it?
Ashley and I could easily spend hours at any time of the day reading our bibles, reading theology, spending time in prayer. We were thirsty to know God, even if at times we felt far from Him, as His depths are deeper than the ocean, His judgements unsearchable, and His ways unfathomable. What we didn't know (those short thirteen years ago) was that it would never again be this easy to spend this kind of time with the Lord.
While we longed for husbands and families and prayed that God would be pleased to give us these desires, we had no idea... absolutely no idea.. what we were praying for.
The summer of 2008 both Ashley and I married good men of God, and as school was over for the both of us, our lives began to move miles apart as Josh and I literally moved an hour and a half away. We had spent the last 4+ (maybe 6 give or take) years preparing for this "real adult life"... and suddenly it was not as easy to spend hours with the Lord on a daily basis any more.
After a year of being married, Josh and I moved even further away... two thousand miles away, and much life happened. In 2010 both Ashley and I had babies. It's been six years since we became mamas... and had to figure out how to be mothers and who we are as mothers... as women... And to top off just learning how to be a mother... I decided to open a business at the exact same time that I had become a mother.
And just like that, I was anxious and troubled about many things. I had no idea that only one thing was necessary. Life easily gets out of balance. We are, as Calvin so delicately puts, perpetual idol factories. It is so incredibly easy to put everything in the place we should be putting the Lord.
I had gotten it in my head and mind that it was okay if the only time I spent with the Lord was in my busied state of constant work... a little prayer here... a little prayer there... maybe I would have time to read a Psalm... maybe I would have time to read a daily devotional from my Spurgeon app on my phone. I had convinced myself that my role as a mother, as a wife, and as a business owner, just meant that I basically couldn't spend time with God like I once was able to.
One day, early this year, I remembered those wise words from my dear friend, Ashley. "I've decided that I am not going to feed my body until I've had my 'daily bread'. I need to feed my soul before I feed myself." I'm so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with this memory to recollect past conversations... And so, I decided that it was time to put this practice back in place in my own life.
Feeding my soul is more important than feeding my body... in fact... if I'm feeding my soul, I am better able to care for my body. "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matt 6:33
The work we do as wives or as mothers or even as business women is very important, but I want to remind you today that life is so much more than taking care of your husband, or tending to you children, or running a business. The Lord wants to speak to you through His word. He wants to reveal Himself to you in a way that you haven't known Him before. He wants to take that place of importance in your life again, or for the first time. We can never ever know God to the fullest. His ways are beyond us, but He welcomes us to a place at His feet to listen to His word, and to know Him and be known by Him.
It's important to prioritize things... but so often we get our priorities catawampus, or even upside-down. We all do it. Check out this story from Luke.
"Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." --Luke 10:38-41
This year has been a year of reprioritizing for me. I read this story a few months ago, and it made me realize a lot about how I had been living my life. I'd wake up and feel defeated because of all of the hundred things I needed to be doing... and I knew that I could not accomplish every single thing.
Sometimes I feel like Martha... sometimes I feel like Mary... but I so desperately want to act like Mary.
When I was in university I had this friend who hadn't grown up following Christ, and had been following Him for just a few short years when I met her. Ashley's passion to know the Lord and to be known by Him was infectious. One day we were walking across campus to go to class... or maybe just leaving class.. and she said to me, "I've decided that I am not going to feed my body until I've had my 'daily bread'. I need to feed my soul before I feed myself."
It has been thirteen years since that conversation. We are both married, and we both have kiddos. All those many years ago that we studied together and broke bread together and learned about who God is together... those years have come and gone and we now live two thousand miles apart and our lives are completely different. Life has it's challenges and difficulties in university. You are learning how to be an adult person, and studying and writing papers and doing research projects... or learning how to be a conceptual artist (my personal main university dilemma). We longed to be out of school and to live our "real" lives. The grass is always greener on the other side, isn't it?
Ashley and I could easily spend hours at any time of the day reading our bibles, reading theology, spending time in prayer. We were thirsty to know God, even if at times we felt far from Him, as His depths are deeper than the ocean, His judgements unsearchable, and His ways unfathomable. What we didn't know (those short thirteen years ago) was that it would never again be this easy to spend this kind of time with the Lord.
While we longed for husbands and families and prayed that God would be pleased to give us these desires, we had no idea... absolutely no idea.. what we were praying for.
The summer of 2008 both Ashley and I married good men of God, and as school was over for the both of us, our lives began to move miles apart as Josh and I literally moved an hour and a half away. We had spent the last 4+ (maybe 6 give or take) years preparing for this "real adult life"... and suddenly it was not as easy to spend hours with the Lord on a daily basis any more.
After a year of being married, Josh and I moved even further away... two thousand miles away, and much life happened. In 2010 both Ashley and I had babies. It's been six years since we became mamas... and had to figure out how to be mothers and who we are as mothers... as women... And to top off just learning how to be a mother... I decided to open a business at the exact same time that I had become a mother.
And just like that, I was anxious and troubled about many things. I had no idea that only one thing was necessary. Life easily gets out of balance. We are, as Calvin so delicately puts, perpetual idol factories. It is so incredibly easy to put everything in the place we should be putting the Lord.
I had gotten it in my head and mind that it was okay if the only time I spent with the Lord was in my busied state of constant work... a little prayer here... a little prayer there... maybe I would have time to read a Psalm... maybe I would have time to read a daily devotional from my Spurgeon app on my phone. I had convinced myself that my role as a mother, as a wife, and as a business owner, just meant that I basically couldn't spend time with God like I once was able to.
One day, early this year, I remembered those wise words from my dear friend, Ashley. "I've decided that I am not going to feed my body until I've had my 'daily bread'. I need to feed my soul before I feed myself." I'm so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with this memory to recollect past conversations... And so, I decided that it was time to put this practice back in place in my own life.
Feeding my soul is more important than feeding my body... in fact... if I'm feeding my soul, I am better able to care for my body. "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matt 6:33
The work we do as wives or as mothers or even as business women is very important, but I want to remind you today that life is so much more than taking care of your husband, or tending to you children, or running a business. The Lord wants to speak to you through His word. He wants to reveal Himself to you in a way that you haven't known Him before. He wants to take that place of importance in your life again, or for the first time. We can never ever know God to the fullest. His ways are beyond us, but He welcomes us to a place at His feet to listen to His word, and to know Him and be known by Him.
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