While I Was Reading... #2

 38 ¶Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named ^aMartha received him into her house.

 39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.

 40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

 41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art ^acareful and troubled about many things:

 42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath ^achosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

--Luke 10:38-42

This is one of my favorite biblical stories. It used to confuse me-- we are taught that work is a good thing, and that was what Martha was doing. She probably didn't mean anything bad by it, and I doubt the Lord chastised her in any way. Ever since I heard a lesson about this story in Relief Society, this story gained a special place in my heart, but I never really felt like I knew what to do with it, or how to apply it in my life (if that makes sense). It wasn't until I read it on my own, for my personal scripture study, that something occurred to me.

Sometimes we turn into Martha, where we are concerned with work and serving and taking care of things, going here and being there and cleaning this and doing that. Our primary goal, however, is to be like Mary. Before all the business of life, above all the tasks that we must accomplish, more important than anything that needs to get done, we must do the things that are needful... we must read our scriptures, pray often, have our hearts constantly turned towards Christ and His Gospel. We must be ready to listen when He speaks to us. We must always sit at His feet, and hear His word. There will be time to serve the Lord later; for now, hear His word. I love the scriptures. 

While I Was Reading...

While reading in the scriptures with Husband Man and on my own, sometimes things really touch me and I want to share them in hopes that they touch someone else as well. I have two things I just wanted to share.

The first is one I read last night in the book of Jeremiah. Husband Man and I have been reading through the Old Testament together since we got married... and three years later we're still going!
But there is a story in the beginning of the thirteenth chapter of Jeremiah that really stood out to me:

1 Thus saith the Lord unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.

 2 So I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins.

 3 And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying,

 4 Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.

 5 So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.

 6 And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there.

 7 Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.

 8 Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

 9 Thus saith the Lord, After this manner will I mar the ^apride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

 10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the ^aimagination of their heart, and ^bwalk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.

 11 For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not ^ahear.

So as I started to read this, my thought process went something like this: A girdle? Ok, a little strange... don't wash it? Weird... Go hide it? Ok... what on earth??
Admittedly, a lot of my thought processes go like this when reading the Old Testament. But when I got to the end of this story, something struck me. All the Lord asked was something simple, and all Jeremiah did was do it. There wasn't any questioning (that we know of, haha), there wasn't any dawdling... The Lord spoke, and Jeremiah followed. The end. That simple. And as a result, the Lord was able to teach Jeremiah something, and give him more wisdom and understanding.

I turned to Husband Man, and I wondered out loud how many times the Lord tried to ask me to do something so simple, and I wouldn't do it because it seemed weird or I was embarrassed to do it, or whatever. I wondered what I could have had learned by now, but hadn't because of my silly and petty reasons.

Just something to think about.

In my personal reading, I can across a quote from Ezra Taft Benson that really touched me:

"When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities." (Ensign, May 1988, 4).

I hope that I can remember that quote as our lives continue, as more kids come, as more things require our attention and our time. I'm grateful for the happiness I feel as I try to make Christ and His Gospel the center of our home.