This has been on my mind a lot lately... I feel like everybody is just too busy to do anything these days (especially to make time for Christ and religion), and that people take pride in how busy they are. It's like the crazier, and more full your planner is, the more worth-while people think they are (I may be one of these people without meaning to be... I LOVE having something going on every second of the day). Honestly I think it is good to keep ourselves busy and to participate in good activities--HOWEVER, I think there is a line. It's not necessarily big and bold and black and easy for us to all see and be aware of. It's this subtle, grey one that we can so easily just step over without even realizing it. And we cross this line when we are "too busy" to fit in what really matters.
I've heard all the excuses: "I have to work." "I have kids." "I'm trying to have kids." "I have school." "I have grandma duty." I have to mow my lawn." "My basement is flooding." "I'm sick." "I'm old." "I'm young." "I have to prepare for my nieces bridal shower." Well last time I checked, preparing for my nieces bridal shower didn't take 24/7. (Maybe I'm just not very good at throwing showers though?) You get the point.
Now, I'm not disputing the fact that everyone really is, indeed busy. I get it. We all have stuff going on. But are you SO busy that you're priorities in life are slipping? I have finally had the epiphany--thanks to Michael Hallmark (possibly the kindest person on the planet). A couple weeks ago we were talking about making time to do something and he said, "if it's something important, we'll make time for it." DING DING DING!!! We have a winner. Michael has got it all figured out. If it is something important, we will make time for it. word.
So how do we figure out what is important? Cause everything seems/is important. We can't stop going to work, making dinner for our family, or keeping up our homes. We PRIORITIZE! Priority--one of my new favorite words! Elder Dallin H. Oaks (of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) said, "We need priorities. Our priorities determine what we seek in life." We put what is important first. I don't know about all of you, but I want to seek God. I believe that God is most important, so He always comes first. Simple math. Now I'm not saying that we read our Bible for 6 hours a day or we don't stop praying until our knees are bruised. I'm saying we start little by little to make God more of a priority.
One of the greatest examples was taught by the Savior when He was with his dear friends, Mary and Martha in the little village of Bethany. Mary and Martha sat at the Savior's feet, hearing His message. But then, they got hungry (what's learning without a good snack?). So Martha, the sweet host that she is, gets up to prepare a meal for their visitor and friend. Martha wanting assistance from her sister, asks the Savior to ask Mary to help her. Let's pause... how many of us have been in Martha's shoes... working and just wanting a little help so that we can be a gracious host? We can't charge Martha for wanting to serve the Lord. We're trained to always be helping and selfless. She was doing what she thought was right. She was doing a good activity--she was serving Jesus Christ dinner! But we go back to priorities.... Jesus kindly reminded Martha that MARY (who is sitting there) chose the better activity. Mary knew her priorities. Elder
Dallin H. Oaks, “reminds every Martha, male and female, that we should not be
so occupied with what is routine and temporal that we fail to cherish the
opportunities that are unique and spiritual.” He said it all. We cannot let other activities (that ALSO are important) distract us from what is most important. good. better. best. We need to choose the activities that are best (Read the actual account here without my commentary).
Sometimes we are all like Martha. We have a million things going on, we want everything to be perfect, and we just can't squeeze in one more thing. But I invite everyone (myself included) to figure out your priorities. I promise as we put the Lord first, we'll find time to do everything else. Read your scriptures first thing in the morning, fill your schedule around church attendance, say a prayer as often as you can. You will find time to the other things, and you won't be "pulling a Martha."
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