Day 8 of Having a "Mary" Christmas in a Martha World
Luke 10:38-42, 1 Corinthians 4:7, James 1:16-17, Luke 18:22-24
We all know the story of Mary and Martha. If you don’t, that's ok, just read Luke 10:38-42. Martha was busy and distracted with serving. Serving is a good thing. We talk about service a lot and there are many forms of service but the way Martha was going about it, caused this good thing to become a distraction from Christ himself who was right in front of her. She was not present to the presence of God.
Giving is a good thing, just like serving is a good thing. During this time of Christmas we can get caught up in writing down lists of what we want and participate in Christmas exchanges. We give and we receive. Sometimes we are willing to give more when we know we are going to receive something good back, even if we don’t want to admit it.
We can even get caught up in this attitude of entitlement. “I have worked hard all year, I made this money and I am going to treat myself to this (one big thing)”. I will say that self-care is important but the attitude behind it can sometimes be toxic to our souls.
I’ll say this again, gifts and giving is not a bad thing. Money and possessions are not bad things, our attitude toward our possessions and money can be. When we start to fall in this attitude of entitlement, “I deserve this” and if we have a possessive attitude toward our things and money, that is when it becomes toxic to our souls. We can test if we have this type of attachment to our things or money. Think to yourself, “if I didn’t have this, or if it was taken from me or broken, would I be ok with that?”
We should see all things as a gift, knowing that if they are taken from us, we will be ok with that because we trust God has a bigger plan. Whether those things be taken from us are our possessions, money, or even the people we are close to in our lives. All are a gift from God to be used and cared for during our life on earth. If that something or someone is taken from us, it can hurt but that’s where our relationship with Christ comes in. Even if we don’t understand why this things/ person was taken from us, we did have them as a gift for a period of time.
“The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name if the Lord”(Job 1:21)
Let’s try to have an attitude of Mary, the other sister, who wasn’t anxious about many things but simply sat in the Lord’s presence and was listening to his teachings. She had this peaceful disposition; we can have that too! We can also look to Mary, Jesus’ mother. She had her son taken from her but even in the midst of her pain and suffering, she trusted God and kept her peace.
Sisters, let’s keep our peace this Christmas season and even if we don’t get the thing we wanted or things don’t turn out exactly how they were supposed to go, trust that God has a bigger plan and is still faithful is giving us exactly what we need, when we need it.
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