Mary and Martha

I am reading a book titled, "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World". There is a lot to digest so I am reading one section at a time and letting it sink in for a few hours before going on so I'm not very far into the book.

All my life, I have thought that the story of Mary and Martha was about one sister who was lazy and another sister who had to do all the work. Okay, maybe not quite that bad. But nonetheless I don't believe I have ever heard of any other angles to this story. 

I am partway through the third chapter and so far this is what I've gleaned...maybe the focus isn't so much that Martha was busy and Mary was able to take time out for Jesus. But what the author has stressed so far is that those of us who are "worriers" are more like Martha. And those who are able to give God control of their concerns are more like Mary. Interesting comparison, huh? I am anxious to see what the rest of the book holds. Stay tuned.

NOTE: the painting above is one I have been eying for a little over a year now. It's called "The Better Part" and is one of many beautiful paintings of the life of Christ by Simon Dewey.

God's Goodness Proven Once Again

Last Friday was Fun Day at school. They were having a paper airplane contest with three different ways to win – 1. Best looking plane; 2. Farthest flying plane and 3. Most acrobatic plane. Since neither Tony nor I are experts in the paper airplane department, Janae did research on the internet for different ways to build them. She made several and tried them out. We thought we’d found a winner. The other two girls weren’t interested in competing. But Janae was so anxious for the contest on Friday.

I was taking photos while they did the Upper Learning Center. Some of their planes flew pretty far! But when the Middle Learning Center got their turn, I watched the first few and thought Janae certainly had a shot. She got up to launch and her plane only made it a couple of feet on both tries that she was allotted. I could see the disappointment and embarrassment on her face. I finished taking pictures and then went to the van to head across town for groceries while I waited for the rest of the day’s festivities to end. I sat there and cried and prayed. I remembered so well the excited little girl that took her neatly decorated Valentine box to school on February 14th and the sad little girl that got in my van at the end of that day because both of her sisters had placed and she hadn’t. I was frustrated because she does such an awesome job at what she does. She puts enthusiasm, effort and energy into each and every project that she tackles and to see her lose again and again just breaks my “mommy heart”.

So I prayed Friday and begged God to please give her something extra special that day. Something that would show her that He really does care for her and that she isn’t just a middle child with anonymity but someone special in the site of God and others. (Tony and I have been talking about this…that she is so awesome about caring for others and thinking of others and how we need to help her discover a more obvious talent- something that others will notice in her – because unfortunately character often goes unnoticed next to ability to perform.) My girls are well aware of the disappointments that life brings so I didn’t feel selfish to ask God for something for her this once.

I picked the girls up later than afternoon and there were no reports of anything fabulous. In fact, Janae was even more discouraged because not only didn’t she win the airplane contest, they weren’t able to do anything fun outdoors and the water fight was cancelled due to pouring rain. Fun Day hadn’t turned out to be quite as fun as she’d anticipated. I was bummed and a bit disappointed that God had chosen to answer my prayer with a “no”. But all was soon forgotten as we prepared to attend a surprise birthday party and for company to arrive the next afternoon.

When Janae brought up the fact on Saturday that she wondered if she would win the Missions award, Tony and I both tried to encourage her to plan on losing and then be completely surprised if she did end up winning. We’d heard rumor that the amount we turned in was close to one of the seniors who has babysat our girls over the last few years. So we tried to go at it from that angle…that this was Luci’s last chance to win since she was graduating and that if she did, we would try again next year.

Imagine our complete and utter surprise when Janae won the Highest Average in her Learning Center, then the Supervisor’s Award for her learning center. I was thrilled enough with those winnings. So when they said the person who’d won the Missions award had turned in $354 dollars, I thought, “Wow! Luci beat us out by $4!” So when the next words out of the Pastor Johnson’s mouth was, "Janae Derscheid," I was totally shocked.

I didn’t really think anything about it until later after all the congrats of the evening wore off. And then God whispered in my ear, “Remember that extra special blessing you asked for yesterday?” “Yes, Lord, I remember.” “I had it planned this way all along.” And I smiled to think that God knows exactly what’s best for His children – in His own time and His own way.

Small Miracles

Ever receive an answer to a prayer that you never prayed? We had three this past week. Sometime in the last month or so, arriving home on a very blustery day we noticed that the very top piece of our gingerbread trim was missing. Not something we were particularly concerned about at the moment since it's cold and Tony doesn't plan on stretching the ladder that high to fix it. But it still bugged us when we saw it. And the thought crossed my mind as to how small of a piece of that stuff you could buy and then, would it match?

The other day the girls were outside riding bikes when Kerrigan came in carrying this:

Yep, you guessed it. The very piece that came off. It might be missing something but at least we have the basic size and can look for a match if needed.

Also, the day before, we went to Castleton Mall in order for Kerrigan to receive her free Build-A-Bear animal - their birthday gift to her. When that was done, we were getting ready to leave and the "birthday girl" decided she wanted to check out the Disney Store, "Just to look!" even though she'd spent all her money at Build-A-Bear. So we start toward the Disney store and encounter some other very girly, girl store. We had other things to do so it was either this store or Disney. She decided on this one.

Well all the sparkly pink and purple merchandise appealed greatly to Kerrigan but not to her older sisters or father. So they decided to head towards the Game shop (in search of the presently elusive Wii, I suspect). When Kerrigan was done, I spotted the Children's Place across the aisle. I called Tony and told him where to find me and I began to scour the clearance racks. Kerrigan was in desperate need of decent Wednesday night type clothing and I found a couple skirts that I thought might actually be below her knee. No small feat these days.

I took her in the dressing room and she modeled two outfits for her dad, who'd returned by then, tired and ready to leave. One did NOT impress him at all and the other was okay. I knew I'd already blown his extra spending money budget the day before shopping for after-Christmas clearance (if I'd have had Pepsi and chocolate on hand, my depression funk would have been cheaper on us for sure!) but I sweetly asked him if he would just go have the clerk do a price check while I helped Kerri back into her own clothes. He humored me (probably something to do with not wanting to revive the depression funk :) And when we came out of the dressing room, I thought I heard her say 99 cents but wasn't positive. When I got up to the counter Tony confirmed that yes, she did say 99 cents! I told her to hold on because I was sure there were a couple other skirts like that that I could modify for Janae.

I ended up with 5 skirts (two for Janae, two for Kerrigan and even one for our little friend Kallee). It isn't always easy to find modest clothing for girls with the right price tag. Those of you with boys, count your blessings!

So, I get home seeing a "mending" day in the near future - knowing that I have these skirts to add elastic to, a few uniform skirts that need attention and two pairs of Tony's pants to hem. Janae came up to me on Sunday morning and says, "Mom, did you know these skirts have these?"

Nope, I hadn't even thought to look but thank the Lord for small miracles! Now if I can just find some pants with an adjustable hem...