Mary and Martha.

Hey pretty ladies!!

Without airing out too much of my dirty laundry, I want to be transparent with you in hopes that I may encourage other women who may be in the same season of life as me.

Let's call it the "Mary" Season.

There seems to be a lot of debate and conversations going on with opinions floating around and different views and beliefs. One person believes in pursuing career, one person believes in full time daycare while another believes in staying home with kids, breastfeed or not, diaper or disposable, the list goes on and on. If I ask one question to five different people, I'll get five different answers.

So I block all that out and find myself asking why has my life been so quiet at home for over a year?

As my readers know, I was laid off last year after only a month of work so we decided I would stay home for a little while and . . .little did I know that "little while" would turn into a year and a half plus. It was like heaven at first, I had all this time to pursue secret dreams and work on art stuff always wanted to try, I could help people whenever the opportunity came up, and along with that came the opinions and judgments....

Now for the past 3 months, with no change in the job field and baby on the way; we're in a new town, new apartment, I find myself still asking that same question.

Why am I still home? God I need to do something!
I'm anxious to be useful!!!

 I feel so worn out, ragged and discouraged!

And then through a friend's wise insight... it hit me so clearly.

The story of Mary and Martha.

 [ At the Home of Martha and Mary ] As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" Luke 10:37:42

Haaa. . .I can breathe again.

I am in the season of being a "Mary" and God has been teaching me to slow my pace of life, control my tongue and cultivate the virtue of gentleness. He's teaching me to be still , to be quiet and to pray. God has been opening my eyes to the importance of sitting at His feet and showing me nothing else matters. Yes, life gets chaotic and kids will bring more demands on my life, but for right now before Asher comes, God is teaching me what's important. I've had to block out opinion and judgments, and focus on where God has me right now
. . . . Can you relate?

 "Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." 1 Peter 3:4

Did you catch that part of being great worth in God's sight? I missed that part many times! God doesn't care how busy we are, how many church events we go to, who we are trying to please; all He cares about is being in relationship with Him, being gentle and quiet-- that is of
great worth to God.

Who wants to sit and be quiet? I don't know anyone, including myself, who wants to. But if we're not pursuing a relationship with God then what is the point of this life? We need to be able to pursue that relationship in the quiet AND in the chaos.

If you're in the quiet Mary season. . . . soak it in, I'm sure the chaos will come again.

If you're in the chaotic Martha season. . . . open your window and soak in the quiet outside your chaos.

We can feel ragged and worn out no matter which season we're going through, but at the end of the day. . . are we enjoying the
 presence of God?

 We can still choose to smile and be joyful no matter the season.