His Encouragement #80

Good morning, and welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

Trisha, my blogger friend at Joy of Reading, and I decided on calling this post “His Encouragement” because our real source of peace, strength, and security can only come from Jesus Christ. He and He alone is our constant! We pray and hope that these Thursday posts become a real encouragement to you and help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you. God bless!

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Today’s Thursday Encouragement comes from:

Luke 10:38-42

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.”

Do you ever feel like the life God has blessed you with is often in complete opposition to that which He asks us to do in His Bible? I will admit that I often do, and this frustrates me so badly.

I know this — God desires that I spend quality time with Him. I also know this — I want to spend quality time with Him every day, but fitting it in can be rather difficult.

Here’s a day in my life:

I wake up at 5:15 in the morning. I groggily take my hour to ready myself to leave for work — brush teeth, put contacts in, shower, dress, put on my face, hug my kiddo and husband, make a super fast breakfast and a cup of tea, and then head off to work. I typically get to my classroom between 6:30-6:40 am. I take about an hour to get my class ready for my six periods of teaching. Then, from 7:30-2:37 pm I teach. I get one 10 minute break and one 25 minute lunch break. When school ends at 2:37 pm I spend about 30 minutes putting my room together a bit for the next day, or I grade. I leave my classroom between 3-:3:15 pm and drive home. When I get home, I say goodbye to my husband who is off to his night shift at work, and then my second job begins. I go through my daughter’s backpack, check her homework, talk about her day, make dinner, clean up dinner, clean up the house a bit, lesson plan or grade, make sure my daughter has fed the dogs, take care of my daughter’s nightly routine, say bedtime prayers with Bella, and put her to bed. When my day is officially “done,” and I can spend some time with Jesus, it’s 8:15 at night. I set up my Bible, get my prayer journal ready, and start my time with God, only to wake up an hour later realizing I fell asleep during my Jesus time. I guiltily make my way to my bathroom, brush my teeth and take out my contacts, and then fall into bed with a quick, “I’m sorry I’m so tired, Jesus” prayer. My alarm goes off at 5:15 and I do the same routine all over again. I’m exhausted just typing all of this.

I chose these verses from Luke today because Jesus’s response to Martha really spoke to me. Martha is busy. She takes care of everything. I know how she feels. I completely understand her reaction to her sister because this is how I often respond to my husband and daughter. I want to scream out, “Can you guys help me with ANY of my burdens?! Do you see me working so hard?!”

Two things jumped out at me in Jesus’s response to Martha. First, He says her name twice. I don’t know if that is because He is trying to capture her full attention (because she is so frantic), or because He wants Martha to know that He really, really sees her. To me, it’s a little of both. I love this notion that Jesus sees our work. Many times we women go through our days working so hard wondering if anyone sees us. It’s encouraging to know that the King of kings does. In this world, I may be a forgotten nothing, but Jesus sees me!

The second thing that jumps out at me is Jesus’s loving scold. Martha is upset because Mary, her sister, is leaving all of the work for Martha to do. In Mary and Martha’s society, women worked in the house taking care of menfolk and children. If anyone was going to hang out in the house talking at leisure, it most likely wasn’t the woman. In this case, Mary is shirking her female obligations and fulfilling the male role by talking shop with Jesus. I think this is what bugs Martha the most — she feels she can’t break her socially-mandated role as a woman and hang out with Jesus too.

Jesus’s response to Martha is a fantastic response to all of us women who truly feel like we can’t take a break. He gives Martha permission to take time off to be with Him. In fact, He tells Martha that time with Him is NECESSARY. I feel like I am not allowed to take a break. I have to get it all done, and it all has to be perfect (whatever “all” may be in a given day). I don’t ever mean to put Jesus last in my day, but it seems like that is how my days go, and I inevitably end my day feeling guilty. Jesus wants to take that guilt away. He gives each and every single one of us permission to buck our societal roles for a moment or two in order to meet with Him. To a woman trying to do it all every day, Jesus’s permission to chill out with Him is like a balm to my weary soul.

Do you feel like you have to do it all? Do you feel guilty when you can’t? Do you sometimes (often) place God on the back burner so you can try to get it all done in a day? Are you ready to throw things because you’re so tired and depleted? If this describes you, hear Jesus’s Voice as He tells you it’s OK to take a break and rest a little with Him.

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NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN!

WHAT BIBLICAL VERSE IS ENCOURAGING YOU TODAY?

Check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective

Becca @ The Becca Files

Gina @ Stories by Gina

Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes