Monday, Monday, Monday

"Oh...it looks like someone has a case of the Mondays!!"
That would be me. Mondays are usually busy for us. School in the morning, band for daughter after lunch, then trying to fit more school in the afternoon, nap for the 3 year old, then TaeKwonDo for son after dinner. Run, run. Usually, I don't mind the schedule myself, and the kids do enjoy their activities. Today was different.

As a spur of the moment thing, last night, I decided with a friend that we wanted to go see a movie at the dollar theater. They have "family day" on Mondays and the movies are only 50 cents. Cool, that fits into my budget :)! We saw that Pixar film, Ratatoullie. It was so cute! I laughed, I cried...

You'd think that would have made my day fun! Well, yeah. And so was the fun that I had visiting with my friend after the movie. But, something was missing....

Have you ever felt like you were spinning around and around in circles? That your day was in a downward spiral and you were helpless to stop it from going completely out of control? That was me today. For some reason, I just couldn't get a grip. I felt like I was frazzled beyond belief.

Then it hit me. Like a ton of bricks. Yeooowch!!! I forgot to sit quietly before my God and let Him fill me with peace. That's why God commands us to "Be still!" (Psalm 46:10). We need to let Him be God. When the Psalmist said "He makes me lie down in green pastures" (Psalm 23) he was saying that we need to just relax. We get so busy with all the things there are to do for God, that we forget to spend time WITH God. We are out being God's little managers of His universe. Too busy to spend time at the feet of Jesus. Now, I am not saying that we aren't supposed to be out there, doing what He has called for us to do, but what I AM saying is simply this:
With all the things that there are to do in a day, week, month, year, we need to get right back down to the basics. Prioritize. Take out what isn't really essential. For those of us who are called to homeschool, maybe it means not doing certain activities. You just can't fit in three prayer groups, 2 field trips, 2 church services, dinner at a friends, counseling time, and homeschooling, family time and God all in one week. It just doesn't work, no matter how you try and get it done.

Go back to the heart of worship and let it be all about Jesus. Sure, field trips are nice, but do you really need to do all the things that other homeschoolers are doing? Sure, prayer groups are wonderful, and corporate prayer is essential for the spiritual battle, but do you really need to try and fit in three different ones? What are you doing to sit at the feet of Jesus and just "be still"?

We need to focus more on Mary, not Martha. Sure, what Martha did was awesome, wonderful, and even necessary. We would applaud her for being able to juggle all her activities. She was would probably be able to homeschool six kids at different grade levels with seven basic subjects, speak Latin, Greek and 5 other obscure languages, have all her kids playing several instruments, and being the den mother in boy scouts, leader in girl scouts, have all the fund raisers under way for 4-H and any and all sports activies. We would marvel at her ways of being frugal and shopping at seven different stores just to buy all the sale items. She would hand sew all her family's clothes, have a huge garden that produced enough veggies to take to the nursing homes, and always be dressed to the tee and a perfect size six.
Whew!!!! I am exhausted just thinking and writing about this!!! Martha sure loved Jesus. But, she was so busy FOR Him, that she didn't spend time WITH Him. And then, there was Mary.

Mary probably didn't have a "perfect" homeschooling schedule. She probably spent time reading, and maybe playing with her kids at the park on a warm sunny day rather than doing math. She would be the type that maybe didn't have the "in" haircut or clothes. She would be clean and have her kids all dressed in nice clean clothes. Maybe her garden produced a lot of veggies because her kids worked in it, too. I would imagine her saying "NO" to a lot of things outside her family life because it would take away from what was really important. Sitting at the feet of the Master. Mary sure had it all together, didn't she? When you look at the story, you realize that Mary did the only thing that mattered.

That's where perfect peace comes in. When we sit at the feet of Jesus, and ask Him what our schedule should look like. He will tell you if you should be going on a field trip, or if your kids should be involved in all those extra things, if you let Him. And you aren't going to get that direction unless you stop running and just "Be still!".

So, stop reading this and get over there with God and let Him tell you what He has in mind for you today!!! And thanks for being here with me, too!