Remember me by the love
My family and I were unpacking Christmas decorations this last weekend and I was so tickled to find a gift that I had received from a very dear friend. She’s one of my “true” women of faith friends. She is real, she is rattled, she has kids, pets and a crazy husband. She camps. She works in her kid’s classrooms. She’s the team mom. And I just love her to pieces.
Last year, she gave me a framed quote (author unknown). I remember having it out through the holidays. And I knew that I definitely needed to have it out where I could see it each and everyday this year.
“Remember me not for the condition of my home. But by the love contained in it’s walls……………”.
Christmas Eve is 12 days away. That is not meant to put you into an even greater panic. Many of us are busier than our normal busy. That’s really saying something, isn’t it! There seems to be extra everything. Extra shopping, extra wrapping, extra cooking, extra cleaning, extra mail, and extra events. How much more extra can we take?
Like other women, I have often fallen trap to the myth that I have to perfect or I am nothing. And it extends not only to me, but anything or anyone associated with me including my home. Can I have people over if my home is not perfectly clean, wonderfully decorated, heavenly scented, and utterly flawless?
In Dr. Leslie Parrott’s book entitled “You Matter More Than You Think-What a Woman Needs to Know about the Difference She Makes”, she talks about the beloved story of Martha and Mary found in the bible in Luke 10:40-42 [+/-]. Jesus had come for a visit to Martha’s home and she scurried about trying to be “flawless” and perfect in every way. But Mary, Mary, sat the feet of Jesus, longing to hear His teachings.
Dr. Parrott says “Martha, like many women, had become more concerned with doing loving things than with being a loving person. She was attending to everyone else’s needs, but she did not recognize her own need to sit at the feet of Jesus. Only later, when her faith in Jesus had grown, was she able to put aside her own worries and trust him even in the worst of circumstances–when her beloved brother Lazarus died.”
Are you more concerned with doing “loving things” than you are with being a “loving person”?
God always sees our heart. He knows our motivation with everything that we do and say. We never fool Him. There is no prize for how many “good things” we can get done this holiday season. Although God knows, that is not what matters most to Him. He is concerned most about the genuine love and care that we have for those in our family, extended families, our cherished friends and to be completely honest, how we treat the strangers that we meet in our day to day lives. How about inviting people over to a less than perfect home to spend some time together and to celebrate the joy of this most wonderful season?
When you think of me, please do not remember me for what my house looked like, what I was wearing, the food that I served, even what my children were doing. Please remember me for the love contained in the walls.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:7, 10 [+/-]
Because God loved me first,
Kris
