Friday, March 09, 2007

Mary or Martha?

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:38-42).


I’ve been thinking about this story yesterday and today. I was a total Mary yesterday when Kendra came to visit. The Relief Society was setting up the church for a big special event dinner and program that has been in the planning stages for months.
Kendra went to the church to visit with everyone, and called me to come and see her there. I had planned to go to the church later in the day to help with the set-up, but instead I sat on the sofa in the foyer and talked to Kendra for an hour while everyone worked.
Now and then they walked by, and in my guilt I saw them shooting me unhappy looks because I was chatting instead of working.
To make amends, I spent last night in the kitchen serving sandwiches while everyone else sat and visited with the other sisters.
But, everyone saw me serving sandwiches, and I was not the one who made them. I fielded a lot of complements, and felt goofy about it; because my sole investment in the evening was putting chicken salad filling into rolls.
I’ve been left wondering if I made the right choice to visit with Kendra of if I chose the easy route and left everyone else to do the hard work while I basked in the glory.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, I finally gave up caring about what other people think, they don't usually have the whole story anyway. I believe you did the right thing. Kendra sounds like a person I would like to know.

Karen said...

Ummmm, everyone knows how chrurch stuff works so I think it's okay to let go of the guilt.

Anonymous said...

Bask, baby, bask!

Anonymous said...

People will think what they will think and say what they will say and you will have a wonderful memory of a nice talk with a friend --- if you can manage to get rid of the guilt which is self imposed because what people think of you is none of your business. (At least that's what my therapist says.)

Anonymous said...

If I had a friend like Kendra you'd better believe I would sit at her feet also. I have never had such a friend. I have had a few I THOUGHT were good friends, but they have always betrayed me.