Luke 10:38-42

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!"

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

I’ll never forget the day I found out my mom had cancer and I was filled with more fear than I could even comprehend. The biggest fear I had was that my mom wouldn’t be there for me when I needed her. She wouldn’t get to see me have kids, she wouldn’t be there to give me advice when I needed it and she wouldn’t be able to celebrate with me when some of life’s most incredible moments happened.

It wasn’t until that day that I really and truly appreciated my mom and started placing a value on life and relationships. During the time, I came to understand life in a whole new way. I started to realize that life was more about living and less about just accomplishing a list of daily tasks.

The scripture in Luke 10:38-42 best describes the transformation that occurred in my life. I saw myself as “Martha”, always busy, always task oriented and moving from one thing to the next. When the reality is, God didn’t call me to be a “Martha”, he called me to be a “Mary”. You see, Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, listening to his every word, focusing on what was important at that very moment in time, while Martha was so busy making the meal, she couldn’t even slow down long enough to listen to our Lord and Savior.

The same is true today in life. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the daily routine and loose sight on God’s calling for each of us. For those of us that have been given the responsibility of being a mom, it’s incredibly easy to spend day after day, just checking things off our list and not stopping to soak in the moments when our kids kiss us or say “I love you”. The same is true of our relationships with others, especially our spouse. How often do you look your spouse in the eyes and tell them you love them? Probably not often enough.

I’m pleased to say that my mom is still alive and still enjoying every moment of life. Every time I watch her as a grandmother to my son, I stop and think about the day she was diagnosed with cancer…and I’m reminded of the calling God placed on my life; the calling to be a “Mary” and to take time to enjoy life and invest in the relationships around me. As I started thinking about Mother’s Day approaching, I was reminded of all the “moms” in my life that have made a difference. They didn’t make a difference because of what they accomplished or what set of daily tasks they did, but because they invested time in me and shared the love of Christ with me. Because of that, I am who I am today and I now know what it means to be a loving wife to my husband and mother to my children.

Happy Mother's Day.