Spare Change January 2017
Every Christmas and Easter we get a family picture at church. Since everyone is dressed up and looking good, I like to have it documented. It’s fun to look back at these pictures each year to see kids being added to our family and how they have all grown. Each year it is a fairly easy task, after a couple of clicks we can usually get a good picture. For some reason this year we could not get a good one. We tried three different times, and took no less than 30 pictures, but could not get one with everyone’s eyes open or head turned the right way. It was very frustrating to say the least. When we got home from church we finally got a decent pic, but it still wasn’t perfect in my mind. It’s tough to get the perfect picture at church in front of the big tree with six people, but that’s not really the point.
My hope is when we are older we can enjoy looking back on year-after-year of Christmas photos. But what about this year, the church pictures were not good. I was very frustrated trying to get this picture and had to take a break from things to get my mind right. If I was not careful I could have ruined Christmas morning, for what, a picture? After thinking about it for a couple of days the decent photo is not even my favorite. Looking back at the 87 pictures we took, a couple of the goofy ones remind me of how silly my kids can be; but I almost missed something even greater, the real reason for Christmas—worshiping Jesus. I almost turned into a Martha instead of a Mary.
Remember the story about Jesus visiting with some of His followers and all Mary was doing was sitting at Jesus’ feet…the nerve. Poor Martha was running around as the hostess: fixing food, refilling drinks, and cleaning up after everyone. I am sure she tried some passive aggressive sighs or some snide comments to get Mary to help her, but to no avail. Exhausted, she appealed to Jesus for some help from Mary. She was thinking surely Jesus would understand, after all He said He came to serve. The one thing that she missed was that worshiping Jesus supersedes serving every time. We are created to bring glory and honor to God first and foremost. Sure, we are implored to serve, and we should serve, but not at the expense of simply sitting at our Savior’s feet and worshiping.
If we are so worried about having a perfect holiday that we miss out on worshiping Jesus, then we have missed everything important. More important than that perfect family picture is taking your family to church, reading the Christmas story, setting out that nativity; all the things that remind us to worship the Savior.
In the New Year, don’t fill your schedule so full you miss out on simply giving glory and praise to your Savior. Take extra time to marvel at creation, belt out a worship tune at the top of your lungs, or memorize a Psalm (100 is a great one to start). Do things that constantly bring your mind back to worship, because running around serving your family, your church, your job, etc. are good things, but simply sitting at your Savior’s feet is better.