Speak Lord, Your Servant is Listening

Women's Advent Brunch
December, 2010

Speak Lord,
Your Servant Is Listening

Read the story of Martha and Mary. Luke 10: 38-42
For many of us in the midst of our busy lives, we hear this story as a rebuke from the Lord and can even wonder, Lord what are you asking of me??? I am so busy and so much of it I can’t cut out. I can’t say, sorry kiddo, change your own diaper, or tell your 11 years old, drive yourself to practice, OR go pick money off of trees to pay your bills.
As I have been reflecting on this passage over the past weeks, the Lord has been speaking to me not a word of chastisement ,but one of intimacy. The relationship between Martha and Jesus is very deep. Let’s take some time to look within the lines of this passage and see what the Lord might be speaking to us this morning.

Let’s start with looking at what we know about Martha. We know that she has a sister named Mary and a brother named Lazurus. We know that they live in Bethany. We know that Jesus is at their house. We know that she welcomed Jesus into her home, into her life with JOY. We also know that she is stressed with the service that she has to do. But we don’t know the other circumstances of her life.

The scriptures don’t mention her husband or children, how old she is, her state of health. We don’t know if maybe she is:
- sick with a chronic illness
- or doesn’t have a husband and desires one
- or her husband might be sick
- or she has too many children under her feet as she is trying to serve
- or she maybe she is longing for a child
- maybe she is grieving the loss of a child, or a friend, or her husband, or her parents

We don’t know her broader circumstances, just that it upset her that she was left alone to serve.

As we look at the next part of the story we start to see the depth of relationship she has with Jesus.
She says to Jesus,” DON”T YOU CARE??? That my sister has left me alone to serve? TELL HER then to help me.”
First of all, this is Jesus in her home, the famous prophet. AND she was a woman. This would be like having the Pope in our home and speaking this way to him. If I had an important guest in my home that I didn’t know well, I wouldn’t dream of speaking to him in that way. But Martha knew Jesus. She knew him well enough to speak very frankly with him.

Let’s look at these 2 lines again.


She starts with DON”T YOU CARE????
- don’t you care that I am lonely
- don’t you care that I’m afraid?
- Don’t you care that I am so so sad???
- Don’t you care that my child is far from you??
- Don’t you care that my husband is emotionally distant??
- Don’t you care that I long for a child??
- Don’t you care that I long for a husband??
- Don’t you care that I am so tired?
- Don’t you care that I am so sick that I can’t fulfill my responsibilities?
- Don’t you care that I’m misunderstood?
- Don’t you care…
Then after Martha asks Jesus, Don’t you care, she then tells him what to do…
- “Tell her then to come help me.”
- Tell him to fall in love with me
- Tell him to see my needs
- Lord just give me a baby
- Lord just please stop giving me babies
- Lord just provide a job for my husband
- Lord just make my child chose you
- Lord just make me healthy
- Lord just make my children healthy

And how does Jesus respond to Martha???
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and concerned about many things.”

On the surface she is upset about not having help in the kitchen, but Jesus responds to her deeper anxieties. Jesus KNOWS her. He KNOWS her deepest anxieties, he KNOWS her hidden circumstances, He KNOWS her longings. He KNOWS her concerns. HE KNOWS HER.

This, my sisters, is the key to this passage. HE KNOWS MARTHA’S MANY ANXIETIES AND CONCERNS. She doesn’t even have to say a word about them. He isn’t scolding Martha. He is LOVING her. He is saying I KNOW YOU. I KNOW.

Jesus knows that we are anxious and concerned about many things. He knows. He knows us deeply.

“Mary has chosen the better part. It won’t be taken from her.”

It would be foolish of us to think that Mary doesn’t have any anxieties and concerns. She is a human being and every human being has anxieties and concerns. But MARY is choosing to come to the feet of Jesus and sit with him. To listen to HIM.


Have you ever tried sitting and listening to the Lord when your mind and heart are whirling with anxiety??? It can feel impossible.

So, in the midst of our many anxieties and concerns, how do we move from questioning Jesus’ love and demanding from Him to sitting at his feet and listening to him in peace?? How do we move past our many anxieties and concerns?

The Lord has been speaking the word “DE-CLUTTER” to me.
- The same way that we need to de-clutter our homes regularly, we need to de-clutter our hearts and minds.
- I hate clutter in my home, yet I also don’t like throwing stuff away. I like to hold on to my stuff, the same way I have a hard time letting go of my anxieties and concerns.
In Philippians 3:18-19 “For many… live as enemies of the cross of Christ…Their minds are OCCUPIED with earthly things.”

Their minds are OCCUPIED with earthly things.

What are our minds occupied with?
We need to stop and examine the things that are cluttering our minds. We need to look at it honestly and see if we should keep it in or get rid of it.
- some of our anxieties stem from what I call “comparisonitis”
o We think we should be someone else or be doing something else because that is what sister X is doing.
- some of our anxieties are that I have too high of expectations on myself and my time
- I want to clean my living room, bathroom, mop and sort all the kids clothes this morning while watching 4 young children…
-Ok- what expectations can I drop???
-some of our anxieties are deep and out of our control. These the Lord invites us to ENTRUST to HIM.
When we ENTRUST something to someone, we take something that is very valuable to us and we place it in the hands of someone who will take care of it. We don’t ENTRUST something valuable to someone who is not going to take care of it.

Jesus wants us to ENTRUST our deep anxieties, concerns, longings, to HIM. Then we can free our minds to think of things that are above, and not be occupied with earthly things.

I had this experience this week. It was a busy day. I didn’t get any prayer time that morning. I flew around doing so many things and the list that I had to do was getting longer by the minute. I had 2 hours after the kids went to bed to get all these things done before bed, but I also needed to take time with the Lord. Then it hit… anxiety… I homeschool my kids and I my mind became occupied with all the things that I am not doing, and that my kids can’t do yet, then, I started to panick about my parenting and I thought oh- I should read that new parenting book I got, but wait, I also have that issue in my marriage that I’m trying to work through, I have that book about marriage, I should read that, but wait a minute, but I need to sew Jimmy’s Christmas present, oh yeah and I haven’t even ordered our Christmas cards, and wait a minute, when was the last time I exercised, I need to exercise right now, but, my kids, my kids are going to, I don’t know, NOT SUCCEED if I don’t figure out their education, but parenting comes before education, but wait, marriage comes before parenting… and around and around and around I went. I decided to do sit ups while planning for homeschool and read a parenting book at the same time…
My heart was racing, my mind was obviously OCCUPIED with earthly things. Throughout this whole time, I hear the still, small voice of the Lord… ENTRUST… ENTRUST to me your anxieties. ENTRUST.
I look up from my book while doing sit ups on my living room floor and I see a statue we have of St. Joseph holding baby Jesus. Jesus is looking right at me. Right at me. ENTRUST.

So I roll over before our prayer table, and prostrate myself and go through the list of anxieties, one by one and ENTRUST them into the hands of love. It took a while. I ended in peace.

I didn’t get anything on my list done. But my heart was at peace and I could see more clearly what was important and what was not important. Most importantly I made room in my mind for Christ.

As we move through this Advent, we can’t physically sit at the Lord’s feet all day because we have responsibilities. BUT we can take some time to declutter our minds, to MAKE ROOM for our Savior to come.

In the midst of our daily responsibilities we can stop when we start down the anxiety road and we can ENTRUST to the Lord our many anxieties and concerns. We can interiorly be still and KNOW that He is God. We can be still and know that HE KNOWS us intimately. HE KNOWS our needs, our fears, our longings, our hopes, our many anxieties and concerns. And he invites us to chose the better part. To de-clutter so that we can sit at his feet and say “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”
Amen.

Saturday...

Here it is Saturday afternoon. What have I done this morning? Has it been a successful, fruitful morning. I think so. It doesn't feel like it though. I haven't cleaned the bathroom, dusted, vacuumed, or even finished a load of laundry ( but I have started the same load now for the 3rd time, because I keep forgetting about it and it is STILL smelling moldy.)
So what have I done????
Well, I took my 5 year old for a much needed date time with Mommy. I talked on the phone with my dad. I talked to by dear friend who is too sick to talk all that often. And I phoned my brother who just had a new baby.
I took care of the relationships in my life. During the week my attention is on my children almost every minute of the day. Yet these other relationships are important to me too.
So, even though I haven't pumped myself with caffeine and run around making my house look like a museum, I have had a productive morning. I have tended to the things that matter most. I have tended my relationships.
Now I need to tend to the most important relationship of all. I need to go take some time with the Lord. While my sweet ones are napping and resting I will turn my gaze to the One I love the most. Then my productive morning will be complete. :)

Success

I've been reflecting lately on what it means to raise a "successful" child. What are really the goals of my homeschool. Is it to produce an academic? A philosopher? A genius? A millionare?

I think to raise a successful kid is to raise one who is a first a disciple. A person who loves Christ and lives for Christ. A person who can think and reason enough to face the challenges of our post Christian. A person who has a servant heart for those around them. A person who can support themselves and a family if called to. I pray that I can help my children to grow to be the unique individuals that God has called them to be.

So, if this is my definition of success, how does that influence how I teach and raise my children today? What it truly the most important things that they should learn at these tender early ages of 7,5 3, and almost 1?

I have been fascinated by Dr. Raymond Moore's research on early childhood development. The more I read, the more I realize that my warm, loving responses to my children at these early ages makes more of a difference for them than whether or not they can read and spell and know their grammar rules AT THIS TIME. There is a time and place for this learning.

My goal is going to be to fill my kids life with Truth, Beauty and Goodness through prayer, great books, chores, great books, nature, great books, free time to explore, great books, some math, great books, opportunites to serve others, great books and lots of love.

We'll find out in 20 years or so if I should have used more workbooks and rigid lessons in 2nd grade.

Christopher Columbus Day!

The more relaxed I am about homeschooling, the more creative I become. The less "school" we do, the more we seem to learn.

Today we threw out our math books (gasp!), and our phonics (gasp), and our spelling... and we had a fun day learning about Christopher Columbus!

Okay, so I made up a game. I was nervous that it would be a flop and it wasn't! It was so fun!
We pretended to be Christopher Columbus and his crew and find new lands.

Things needed:
3 laundry baskets ( preferably different sizes, but not necessary)
Baby dolls for crew- list of jobs in History Pockets- cook,doctor,carpenter,priest, first mate...
Hard tack- mix 1 cup flour, 1/2 t baking powder, 1/8 salt, 1 cup water. Bake 450 degrees for 18 minutes or so. Turn over 1/2 way through
Paper and pencil
long string tied to each laundry basket
compass (if you have one)

Construction paper (preferably different colors) cut in strips with instructions on them
"Good winds. Go North 10 steps"
"Bad Storm. Blown off course. Take 5 steps East"
"Food Break! Eat Hard tack"
"Draw a picture of the ocean all and you see in it"
"Dictate a letter to Diego (Columus' son) about your voyage"
"Sickness. Go back South 5 steps."
etc...

1. Make your hardtack. ( baking, math, measuring, working together! What a wealth of learning!)
2. We "rock paper scissored" for who would be Christopher Columbus and have the biggest boat (Santa Maria)
3. The three year old was the smallest boat... the Nina.
3. Pick your crew.
4. Gather all your supplies.
5. Find a place to begin and a place to end. Our starting point was at the end of our driveway. Our ending point was in our garden in the back yard.
6. Figure out North, South, East and West and teach your children. (great skill for them and me! )
7. Put your construction paper instructions ( about 20 of them) in a bowl.
8. Let the littlest pick first. Off you go.
Everyone follows the instructions together, but they take turns picking from the bowl.

We made it to our destination! We found new land and experienced a little of how hard it was to make that journey. My 3 year old worked on colors (from the different colored slips). My 5 year old practiced counting by counting steps. My 7 year old practiced reading. They all practiced working together. We enjoyed being outside. We laughed and we LEARNED!!

We tried round 2 because they begged for it... only the 7 year old could handle 2 rounds. :)

Good books that we read to introduce Columbus...
The Christopher Columbus Story by Alice Dangliesh
Christopher Columbus by Ann McGovern

We sang:
The Nina, The Pinta, The Santa Maria,
Columbus and his Crew,
they sailed the ocean blue,
in 1492.

Well, here I am. A first time blogger. A friend of mine keeps mentioning that I should try this blog thing to record our homeschool experiences. So, here I am.
I am a mom of 4 beautiful children. My oldest, Lucy is 7, John Patrick is 5. Jimmy is 3. And Mary Margaret is 10 months!
I LOVE homeschooling my children!! I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be home with these little ones. I enjoy being with them and getting to know them. (most of the time...)
Another reason I love homeschooling is because I get to learn all the things that I should have learned growing up. You will have to be patient with my writing/grammar/spelling skills... I am only at a 2nd grade level!
How would I describe my homeschool philosphy? I guess eclectic is what I am. I am very drawn to Charlotte Mason. I really enjoy Carole Joy Seid. And I am reading Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore books right now too. My philosophy is evolving. I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide me to be the kind of homeschooler that He wants me to be.