When our daughter, Alannah, was only four years old my parents invited her to come and spend a week with them. It was probably the first time she had been away from home but we lived only an hour and a half away so we knew that if she wanted to come home it would be an easy thing to go and get her.
While she was there, my parents did all sorts of special things with her. My Mother helped her build a snowman and then filled an empty dish soap bottle with water and red food colouring so they could spray the snowman to make it pink. Alannah loved it! They baked cookies together and Dad took her on walks around the little town they live in. They had fun.
During the week, my Mother, caught a nasty head cold and was feeling miserable so she laid down on the couch in the living room. Alannah knew Nana was sick so she wanted to help her feel better. She knew that whenever she had a fever I would get a cold, wet facecloth and fold it and place it on her forehead to help her feel better so she decided to do the same for Nana.
Now, a four year old does not wring out a cloth so you can just imagine how wet this cloth was. Alannah came into the room with the water from the cloth dripping everywhere, but Mom and Dad never corrected her because she was only trying to help. (Dad wiped it up later.) She laid the soaked cloth over Nana's face and said, with a satisfied sigh, 'there!' and turned to go back towards the kitchen to get something else for Nana, when Grampy asked her to take his empty tea mug to the kitchen sink. Alannah turned towards him and with all innocence and no sass, she said "but Grampy I'm not a waitress, I'm a nurse." Mom and Dad had a good laugh about that and Grampy took his own mug out to the kitchen so Alannah could continue 'nursing' Nana.
We were sitting around the supper table telling this story once again and I thought, I wonder how much better our lives would be, if we were that sure about what we are suppose to be doing. So many times, as Christians, we get side tracked and distracted from what we know we should be doing. We get caught up in things that take up our time and energy and find that we have no time left to do what the Lord wants us to do.
Just like Alannah, at four years old, knew exactly what she was suppose to be: a nurse to Nana, so we need to be that sure and determined to carry it out. As a Believer, I am a disciple of Christ, therefore every day I need to be learning from Him and emulating Him and doing everything I can to focus only on Him. I need to be following His commandments and bringing others to know Him as well. As Christians, we can get caught up in church activities and doing good things and keeping busy but if we neglect our study time we are not being the disciple Christ asked us to be. If we preach one thing with our mouth but act another, we are a hypocrite and will drive others away from knowing the Lord instead of what we are suppose to be doing: drawing them to Him.
Do you have a clear cut vision of what God wants you to be? First and foremost He wants you to be His disciple. His student, His follower, the one who carries out His wishes. We can be so busy rushing here and there doing good things, like Martha was but Christ said that Mary, her sister, chose the best way and she only sat at Jesus' feet. Yes, there will always be things that need doing, like taking a tea mug to the kitchen, but we can't neglect the time we sit at His feet learning from Him, to do them. Know what you are and what He has asked you to do for Him.
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.” Luke 10:40-42
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, John 8:31
Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 2 John 1:9
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