Preparing for the Day

The word "distracted" caught my eye as I read Luke 10:38-42. I get so distracted with my daily tasks, too. We all want to be "Martha Stewarts." By the way, I find it humorous that the famous homemaker geru in our day and age is also named "Martha." And it's quite obvious that she is seriously distracted with details. I mean who in the world has five hours to decorate ONE cookie?!!!! There are tasks in each of our lives. They must get done. They are not optional. I'm sure Martha felt the same way. "This is not optional. If I don't take care of all this, who will?" It was Jesus who had to point out to her that her priorities were wrong. He didn't say that her work was wrong, just the placement of that work. Did she have to prepare everything at THAT moment? There will always be tasks to be fulfilled. There will always be cleaning, laundry, and paperwork to get done. If I let these tasks engulf me, and put them as a priority above my time with the Lord, than before I know it, it's evening. I'm exhausted and left with thoughts like, "I didn't get anything done today." My priorities were off that day. I was heading the wrong direction as soon as I thought I was too busy to sit down and spend time with the Lord.



We all have our "To Do" lists, and there is so much written on them that we can't afford to NOT spend time with Him. If we continue to let tasks distract us, than all of our service is done out of a sense of duty and not out of love and devotion for the Lord. Our work won't even mean anything. It will just be "busywork." A note in my Bible read, "Are you so busy doing things FOR Jesus that you're not spending any time WITH Jesus?" Jesus told Martha that Mary "chose the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Some day, we will stand before God and give an account of what was a priority in our lives. It won't matter how high the stack of dishes is that you washed in your lifetime or how many baskets of laundry that you folded, but how much time did you spend with Him?