“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42, NIV
Trisha was one of those students who was always busy—but with the wrong things. During one visit to her classroom, I observed her moving from the pencil sharpener to the sink to the closet and then back to her desk to play with her crayons and erasers. One day in the hallway, I watched her stop to stare at a piece of fuzz on the carpet! In my class, she had to sit next to me in the front of the room to have any reasonable chance of paying attention.
Trisha usually kept quiet, yet her distractibility would keep everyone’s eyes on her. She seemed like such a happy child; just thoroughly happy about the wrong things.
Aren’t we all like this sometimes though?
Like me, have you ever sat down to meet with the Lord in the morning and before long found your mind on something else? Usually, when I get distracted at such times, it is about something I need to remember to take to school, an email I forgot to send, or worse yet, something I’m worrying about that takes my mind off of the right things.
Jesus wants us to sit at His feet and listen to Him. He gives us the responsibility to guard our minds, to set our hearts on things above…to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things (Colossians 3:1-2). How can we hope to hear His voice during the busy day ahead if we have difficulty concentrating on His voice in the morning when we spend time alone with Him? Where will our strength and wisdom and love and patience and the rest of our needs come from if we neglect to focus on Him?
Lord, help me to seek You and set aside what distracts me from hearing Your voice. Amen.
Copyright Shirley Wilson.
Shirley is a retired Christian Educators member and former board member of Christian Educators.
