It's All About Me????

Women of Faith:

Is it all about me? Or are you coming to realize that just because our society says ME, ME, ME, doesn’t mean that God says so?

It seems as if none of us wants to accept the blame, few truly forgive, and even less forget, and seeing someone serve another person without “pay” or reward is a rarity. As spouses, serving and forgiving, which are the core principals of love and marriage, are at the “root” of many of our breakdowns in relationships. We live with the consequences of pride, anger, and jealousy; greedy and unwilling to “see” God’s love and understanding in our lives.

We want to be taken care of, pampered, and made to feel as if we are right all the time. We spend money for instant gratification, we expect to always be right and put ourselves in charge so that we can have “power” for our own purposes. And if a spouse doesn’t justify the other, they go in search of “love” from other “feel good” /addictive/ areas, or another person thru adulterous affairs; and no one seems to think any of this is “abnormal” or wrong, because society has made it “right” by its frequency.

We have religions that support gay marriage, abortion, and birth control. Religions who believe in “a god”, who don’t believe that Jesus has lived, and/or who’s teachings circumvent the full truth so that they will feel better about the way they are living.

The California courts have thrown out the ban on gay marriage, voted on by the people, saying that it is “unconstitutional” and yet it was the people who put it in the constitution by their vote. Literally the judge is saying—IT’S ABOUT ME, “I don’t like what was voted in, so I’ll just make a new law I like by banning the people’s vote/law.”

God doesn’t work that way. He doesn’t need us to be right. He is RIGHT! He put us here with His love; He put us here to serve each other. He put us here so that we could be with Him in heaven.

We have a shining example of “pure love,” “pure acceptance,” and “pure service,” in the person He gave us to bear His son, Mary.

“Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Luke 1: 38 She accepted God’s request for her body and spirit wholeheartedly. “Done according to HIS word!” She said nothing about her own desires, nothing about I or me, only about God’s desires.

So do we worship Mary? No, but we do pray "thru" her, honor her with the greatest reverence, and ask her to lift our prayers to her Son, Jesus and to God. As Martin Luther said in 1531, “She is the highest woman and the noblest gem in Christianity after Christ. She is nobility, wisdom and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough. Still honor and praise must be given to her in such a way as to injure neither Christ nor the Scriptures.”

At the foot of the cross, with some of his last spoken words, Jesus said to his disciple, “Mother, behold your Son. Son, behold your mother.” John 19: 26-27 Jesus gave his mother, Queen of the universe, to us ALL, so that she would be OUR HEAVENLY mother, as she was/is God’s GIFT of a PERFECT mother for Jesus. And just as we requested our own earthly mothers intercede with our fathers when we were youngsters, so does Jesus tell us to take our prayers to His mother Mary, so that they will reach a greater glory with God, our Father.

Mary is our example that none of our actions should “be about me.” But instead, they must be “about God.” We are called to love and serve as Jesus (and Mary) did. We are also called to forgive and give as they did.

Dear God: Praise be the gifts of Your Son, Jesus and His heavenly Mother, Mary. Thank you for the Beauty and Blessings bestowed on us thru her intercessions for us. Help Me to be more like Mary, ready to serve, giving of my life, willing to forgive, and pure of heart. Help me NOT to be “about me” but “about living my life for you.” Amen.

Help me to be “about you” this week—

Blessings,
Charlotte