Focus on What is Better!

 

            Several years ago, I was contacted about speaking at a Church’s Mother’s Day Banquet. Since it was only three weeks until Mother's Day, my first reaction was that their first choice for speaker must have canceled. Then, I found out that they hadn’t set a date or a theme. Maybe I wasn’t the second choice after all!

            Once I arrived, they gave me the program schedule – a short devotional followed by prayer for the food.  Then, lunch.  I was told that once everyone settled down to eat, I could speak.  Short lunch for me!

            When the program started, the hostess gave the devotion and then picked someone from the audience to have a prayer for the meal.  Then, after the minister said a few words, the ladies began to go through the meal line.  Unfortunately for me, they didn’t ask the speaker to go first and since I was seated at a table farthest away from the food, it now looked like no lunch for me.  After about two-thirds of the ladies had been served, someone realized that the speaker should have gone first.  Since it was about time for me to start speaking, they decided that maybe I should not speak until after everyone finished eating. 

            I’m a type A personality that likes to have everything organized with every i dotted and every t crossed, so my first reaction to all of this was: “These people need help!  They have no idea how to plan a program.  Where is their “detail” person?”

            As I waited for the program to begin, I came to a completely different perspective.

·                             There was genuine love in that room.  The young women genuinely loved and admired the older women.  Cameras were flashing all over the room as the women sought out their friends, both young and old, to take pictures.  There were genuine greetings and welcomes, and it was obvious that they were glad to have this time of fellowship.  Even the men who were serving seemed genuinely glad to be there.

             The Holy Spirit had brought the entire day together despite their lack of planning.  The devotion, the comments the minister made, and my speech all came together around one common theme, even though none of it was planned and none of us knew in advance what the others might say. 

    That day taught me a lesson that I have to keep learning over and over again. Details are important but sometimes all you need is to focus on what’s most important.  In Luke 10, Martha was all about the details, but Mary understood what was most important.  Don’t get lost in the details!  Focus on what’s better!

Luke 10: 38 -42

 

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