mary-and-martha.com

For the past year I have been writing a blog on the Proverbs 31 Woman and perhaps you have read it. Recently a lady posted a comment because of her concern in trying to do all the right things. It was obvious she was so caught up in actions that she had forgotten to take some time out from her work and spend time with the Lord. My response to her request for help was the following:

You poor thing - the Proverbs 31 Woman is great to work towards but it doesn’t mean you have to be the perfect woman, and I think this is something many of us (women) struggle to try and be.

Please don’t mistake the need for rest for the ‘bread of idleness’. Don’t you know that even a woodcutter has to take time out to sharpen his saw? Reading your bible, prayer and meditation are the very things you need to sustain you, give you strength and keep you going. If you’re not resting, particularly in the Lord, then of course you’re going to feel exhausted.

Be kind to yourself and allow yourself time to spend with our Lord, reading his Word, and just relaxing. You don’t have to get everything finished every day. But in resting, you’ll find you have renewed energy and enjoyment in life and that you’ll probably achieve more than you could before.

The Proverbs 31 Woman is a great example to work towards but she is an example and none of us can ever expect to reach perfection in our lifetime.

By the way - give yourself permission to go and sit with your husband in the evenings. He married you to be with you and a ‘perfect wife’ cannot be so if she’s not spending time with her husband.

I’m posting this here because she is also caught up in the ‘Mary and Martha’ thing - the desire/need to do and get everything done, but at the same time resenting that others can sit around and rest or spend time with the Lord or each other. We get torn to do one or the other, without realising that there is room for both - we just need to accept that and apportion time suitably for both.

I was doing some voluntary work at my church recently and had a chance discussion with one of the women there, which actually led to the birth of this blog. She asked me who did I align myself with most in the bible?

I had to stop and think about that - I’d not been asked that question before and it had never arisen in my mind. My focus for the past year (2006) has very much been the Proverbs 31 Woman and today’s Work At Home Mum and the correlation between the two. So I said ‘Proverbs 31 Woman’.

But then I thought about previously how I’ve felt at different times in my life and have often waivered between Mary and Martha. I mentioned this and the ’syndrome’ and the other lady laughed and said ‘yes, the split personality’. She wondered off to get more envelopes and I thought about our conversation and wrote some of it down. It prompted me to think that perhaps I should explore this more and hence this blog.

I invite you to add comment and perhaps even point me towards different things relating to these two very special women of the bible.