mary.

The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus…” Luke 1:27-31

Last night during our church Christmas program, several video clips were shown from The Nativity movie.  My heart almost stopped as I saw Mary holding her baby son, our Savior, Jesus.  I kept thinking of the scripture mentioned above.  God looked on the earth and He saw Mary.  A simple young girl and He chose her to be the mother of our Savior.  She found favor with God.  I wonder as God looks down on me, do I find favor with Him?  Do others look on me and see the Spirit living in me through my actions, attitudes, and words? I’m afraid the answer would not be one I would like.  I know there are things in my life that I need to work on-prioritizing my relationship with the Lord being the biggest. 

For those of you who know me, you know our little family has been having problems sleeping. With a 1 year old that is sometimes the case, but our little man still wakes at least 3 times a night…leaving a very sleepy and sometimes grumpy momma heading to work at 7 am.  On Thursday I was at my wit’s end.  I have had about 4 hours of sleep a night for the past 9 months and it had really started getting to me.  On top of that our dishwasher randomly stopped working (which shouldn’t be a big deal-but of course in my deprived sleep state I made it a huge ordeal).  During my lunch break I went home and turned on the radio, opened the window above the sink and started hand-washing our dishes.  I was on the verge of tears because I was completely exhausted.  

As I got into my car to once again head to work the song ‘Blessings’ by Laura Story came on.  I was singing right along…

‘What if a thousand sleepless nights 
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise’

Then I lost it, I thought I was going to have to pull over tears where streaming down my face.  All I could think was ‘I need to spend time with Jesus’.  The trials in my life are so simple compared to what others are facing.  God has blessed me with more than I could ever need and yet I still forget to give Him the glory.  There are definite times in our life where he allows us to go through things so that He  glorified in the end.  

It is my prayer that I will find my focus shifting off of myself and towards the One who blesses me.  I pray that I may find favor in the eyes of the Father.