Here is what I've been contemplating today:
Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you.
~ Mother Teresa
I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
~ Helen Keller
Some weeks ago, as I was reading Genesis 11, I came across this verse:
Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
To be honest, my natural inclination is to strive to make a name for myself. Even the good that I desire to do gets corrupted by my selfish, prideful motives. When I read the above verse, I wrote in the margin of my Bible, "Am I humble enough to not make a name for myself, to be forgotten except by God?"
Weeks later, I'm still asking myself that--hoping the answer is "yes," but knowing acutely that too often it is not. Today, as I leave my desk to go scrub stubborn rice grains off a dish and toss wet laundry into the dryer and sweep the porch of its wood dust and replace scattered toys in their appropriate containers, I'll seek to help those nearest me by accomplishing small, yet great and noble tasks, while not puffing myself up to think that I am the one who is great and noble, but remembering instead that I do what I do in the sight of the One Who Is Truly Great and Noble.
Help! This is no easy task! :)
Oh Davene, I can't thank you enough for writing this! I could have written it myself, the part about wanting to make a name for myself, but I guess I haven't been humble enough to put it in words for the world to see. There is such a big part of me that wants to be noticed, respected, thought good about, praised, looked up to, noted to excel, and all those things. All those selfish things. In my prideful heart, I don't want to do invisible work; I want to do work that the world will notice, will talk about how good it is, etc.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that was just me, and I wanted to be more like you and my sister Miriam who just thrive on doing invisible work.
Thank you so much for the reminder about the tower of Babel. It's a powerful one. Now I can have more reasons to be happy doing work that only God sees and knows about.
Don't stop sharing!
It's not an easy task, and I, too, find myself thinking about the same thing. But I am thinking of posting Mother Teresa's quote in my kitchen as a reminder that it all starts here. These quotes are quite moving and powerful, and are coming at exactly the right time for me.
ReplyDeleteWhat an encouraging post Davene,
ReplyDeleteI have needed to hear this a ways back in my life. We live in such a society today that screams, "if you don't make a name for yourself than you are boring or a nobody and have nothing good to offer".
Thanks so much for sharing this. I truly needed to hear it.
I will reread this to soak in this truth again and again.
Much love in Christ dear friend,
~ Marie
I think that's why so few woman want to be 'full-time mums'. There's no glory in it; no recognition; only, 'Oh, you don't work - you're just at home?'- type comments.
ReplyDeleteBut of course our hearts are so corrupted by pride that even at home, we crave recognition.... an old Christian once said, on his deathbed, 'hateful pride....you're still here'.
Thankfully, our Saviour covers them all, and one day, when we 'see Him as He is', we shall have no sin... Blessed thought x