Can I encourage you this Christmas to let go of your expectations for the picture-perfect Pinterest Christmas. We can put so much on ourselves, can’t we? Ladies, so much of the load of making Christmas happen falls on us, and perhaps you are already feeling the tension in your shoulders mount.
Scripture has something to say about our expectations:
Luke 10: 39-40, “And Mary…sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 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!
I have an ambitious missionary friend who said, “If Mary had gotten in that kitchen and helped Martha, they both could have been at Jesus feet.” But those of us with the Martha-doer personality, we know that there is always more that needs to be done. The urgent tends to supersede the important. We have to choose. Mary chose a what is better. She had her priorities straight. She didn’t let the immediate crowd out the eternal
Martha was majoring on minors—how do I look to everyone here? Will I impress my guests as the best Martha Stewart of Bethany? We can find ourselves there, can’t we?
But the Lord had some help for her. Luke 10: 40-42, “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.”
Here’s a rich nugget of insight as we examine the original language.
The words worried and upset in the King James Bible are translated
careful or care-filled and troubled. A word for trouble in the New Testament is tarazowhich means to “upset” as demonstrated in John 5 when the angels “stirred up” or “upset” the waters at the Pool of Bethesda.
But that’s not the word used here. In this verse the word used for trouble is “Toorbadso.” It means to make trouble!
Jesus is saying, “Martha, Martha, Martha, you are making way too much trouble for yourself.”
In other words, serve store bought Martha, honey and spend some time at the Lord’s feet. Mary has chosen a better way,
In what ways do we make trouble for ourselves…needing to impress the Jones? After all, what good is having something if, you can’t make others jealous of it? Do we make trouble investing in the perfect Rachel Ray holiday table? Or attempting the mile high apple pie that the Prairie Woman posted? And all the while we can be making those around us miserable, including ourselves?
One mom told me how she was outside in the wind and the rain with her husband and son complaining to her vehemently as they were wrapping the mailbox to look like a candy cane while she screamed, “We are gonna have fun and that is an order!”
We want to remember, it’s Jesus’ birthday not our party!
As we surrender unreasonable expectations, we just may find we enjoy the season so much more. Instead of making trouble for ourselves, we can choose what is better. We can slow our roll and get some time to reflect on the real meaning of Christmas and thank Jesus for the gift of Himself.