Have you ever felt nervous...fidgety...on edge...cranky? Sort of like your life was falling apart and you were losing control? And even though you knew it and you didn't want to act the way you were, you kept on stomping through your day, lashing out at anybody and everybody who crossed your path-you're parents, your brother or sister, your friend, a salesperson?

Well, my new friend, you are not alone! This happened to a woman in the Bible-a woman just like you and me-who got too worked up. In fact, she was a wreck! Her name is Martha, and Martha was a friend of Jesus.

What happened to put Martha over the edge? In a few words, Jesus and His disciples were coming to her house. Wow! Now that should have been the best day of Martha's life! But Martha went into a tailspin. Why? Because Martha got too involved in the activities of her life-activities like...

serving Jesus and

working for Jesus.

And in all her serving and working, Martha failed to just...

stop and enjoy Jesus and

worship Him.

And how did Martha's busyness and the neglect of her spiritual life show? You guessed it-she got nervous...fidgety...on edge...cranky. And then she fell apart and lost control. Not only was Martha stomping through  her day, but she was stomping through the kitchen, the dining room, and the family room. She even lashed out at her sister, Mary. And then ( horror of horrors!) she lashed out at Jesus! :O

Martha was definitely out of control. And that led her to saying things she shouldn't have said, to blaming others for her awful condition, to bossing everyone around (even Jesus! :O), to comparing the amount of work she was doing with the amount of work her sister was (or wasn't!) doing, to complaining, to emoting...well, I'm sure you get the picture.

But, what was wrong?

From God's Word to Your Heart...

Looking at the Bible's account and what it tells us about both Mary and Martha will answer all our questions. Read it below. It's what I call "the tale of two sisters." And while you're reading it, notice what Jesus said was wrong in Martha's heart. Notice, too, the words the Bible-and Jesus- use to describe Martha's conduct. And Don't fail to catch how Mary is described and what good thing Jesus had to say about her.

As we learn these two sisters, we mustn't miss the fact that both of them loved Jesus (see verses 38-39). Both loved our Lord and served Him. But in this scene there was a greater difference in their behaviors, which revealed something about what was going on in there hearts at the time.

You see, Mary not only loved serving the Lord, but she loved listening to him. I mean, the split second Jesus started talking, Mary stopped! Her service came to a screeching halt, and she stopped, set her serving dishes aside, and took a seat at Jesus' feet. Why? So she could listen to Him-not just do for Him! After all, He had " the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).

So our dear Mary demonstrated a heart devoted to God by hearing His words and by worshiping Him. She was obsessed with Jesus. My guess is that Mary also loved the quieter disciplines of the Christian life-like sitting down in a favorite place to meditate on Scripture, to pray to God, and maybe even write in a journal of diary. Whether this is true or not, we do definitely know that Mary knew when and how to make the choice to stop all the busy-ness of life and spend time with God.

And here's another point we don't want to miss. Surely Mary did her work. But Mary made sure her choices gained her the all-important time she needed to take care of her devotion and commitment to God. Yes, hers was a hearts devoted to God.

Because Mary was a woman after God's own heart, her heart was devoted to Him. She was preoccupied with one thing at all times-Him! As I said above, Mary was obsessed with the Lord. Therefore Mary  consistently made one choice, one decision, that caused Jesus to speak of her as He did. And what was that one choice? Mary chose to spend time hearing God through His Word and worshiping God in her heart. In other words, Mary chose to spend some of her precious time with the Lord!

I know you want to be a woman after God's own heart too, just like Mary was. So how can you move in that direction? Consider these three tried-and-true ways

1. Choose to spend time with God-Here's how one woman after God's own heart put it: " I don't want to be robbed of even one of God's riches by not taking time to let Him invade my life. By not listening to what He is telling me. by allowing the routine, pressing matters of my minutes to bankrupt me of time for the most exciting, most fulfilling relationship in life."

Now, how can you make time in your busy day for " the most exciting, most fulfilling relationship in life"? For listening to God? For spending time with Him? For letting Him invade your life?

Listen to what my daughters' high school pastor told their youth group amount spending time with God. He asked them, " Would you be willing to go on a bit of a fast each day, a time fast? Would you be willing to...

...say no to some time watching TV,

...say no  to some time on the telephone,

...say no to some time with friends,

...say no to some time in the mall, in order to

...say yes to some time with God?"

And now the question is, would you?

2. Choose God's way at every opportunity-" In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:6) could be the theme verse of this entire book-and life! This well-loved verse describes a two-step partnership with God. Our part is to stop and acknowledge God along the way. God part is to direct our paths and make them straight. his means, that we are to consult with God regarding our every decision, word, thought, and response. This means that before we move ahead or before we react to someone or something, we need to stop and pray first, " God, what would You have me do-or think or say-here?" If you do this you'll find the principles in this poem to be true for you and the choices you make.

Don't you think this practice of stopping and consulting God before acting (and reacting) like Martha did would help you and me to make the good, better and best choices in the situations that we confront each day? Don't you think this habit would make us more like Mary?

3. Commit yourself to God daily-In Romans 12:1, the apostle Paul says "to offer you bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing unto God-this is your spiritual act of worship." As we consider our desire to commit ourselves to God daily, I want you to begin a new practice this week based on Romans 12:1. I want you to begin committing yourself to God daily. And how could you do that? Here's how one man did it. He wrote down a list of what he called "his rules to live by every day." And what was #1 on his list?

Make a daily, definite. audible dedication

of yourself to God. Say it out loud-

" Lord, today I give myself anew to you."

Why not make such a commitment to God daily for a week? And then why not seek to make it a habit for life?

4. Cultivate a hot heart-God has a few things to say to us in Revelation 3:15-16 about our heart condition. Read it for yourself:

I think it's pretty obvious, according to this scripture, which heart condition God considers the worst! And it gets even more serious as we think about these bone-chilling facts:

* To be considered cold-hearted means to be unemotional, unconscious of God. Imagine being unemotional about the things of God!

* And to be lukewarm means to be indifferent . Imagine being indifferent toward God!

* But the third heart temperature is to be yours as a woman after God's own heart. You are to be hot-hearted. That means that the heat of your heart and emotion reaches a high temperature. That means boiling over! And such high heat is usually paired up with violent activity, emotion, excitement, and passion. It's fiery! As I said, that's the heart of someone-you!-who's committed to God

Now, what is your heart's desire...and your hearts temperature toward God?

This one was tricky. Overwhelmingly the girls we spoke to agreed that you should not marry a non-Christian. But remember, it's one thing to know Truth; it's another thing to believe it to the point of allowing it to operate in your life. As we probed a little more deeply this is what we found.

This seems to be one of thoses areas where many know the right answer, but there are some really lame excuses for why you don't have to live according to the Truth right now. Those excuses include:

The question is-are you planting seeds of purity and faith, or seeds of compromise? We're not going to go easy on you here. This is a huge issue with more serious, potential implications for the rest of your life than you can possibly imagine.

God doesn't want you to be "tied" to unbelievers. His Word is clear that we should not form binding relationship with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Marriage is the ultimate binding relationship. God does not want you to be tied to an unbeliever in marriage-and the power to live out that conviction begins now. If you compromise now, you'll be far more likely to compromise when you're ready for marriage.

Don't tell yourself,  " It's just a casual relationship. I would never marry this guy." Maybe not. But if you invest time, interest, effort and thought in a guy...sooner or later, you may well find yourself making life-impacting decisions you never dreamed you would make.

Not only does God want you to marry a Christian; He wants you to marry a man who will lead you spiritually. He desires for all of your relationships to draw you closer to Him and to enable you to serve Him more effectively. The Scripture actually uses the word "yoked" to describe being tied together in a binding relationship (2 Corinthians 6:14). Imagine two cattle yoked into a harness to carry one load. If one is weak, how great a burden will that be to the strong one? How much will the weak one hold the strong one back?

This is one area where there is no room for compromise. Satan is seeking to rob you of a future filled with joy, peace, and the opportunity to glorify God wit you life. It's not worth trading all that in for a relationship with a guy who doesn't have a heart for God and for a future that could end up filled with pain and heartache.

Over the years, many women have poured out their hearts to us about deep regrets they have over choice they have made relating to dating, courtship and marriage. They would give anything to be able to go back and relive that part of their lives. Unfortunately. that's just not possible. As I (Nancy) listen to these women share their heartaches, I often think, " I wish every young woman could hear this story-before it's too late!"

We want to spare you the kind of heartache others have experienced. We want you to enjoy God's very best for the rest of your life. So we're going to give you a challenge. We want to urge you to make a serious commitment.  (You may think you're too young now to be even thinking about dating, much less marriage! But now is the time to develop wise, godly convictions.)

You may think that standard sounds unnecessarily high for "casual dating". But think about it-if you never date a guy who would not be qualified to be a godly husband, you will significantly decrease your chances of ending up in a troubled marriage. We're confident this is one commitment you'll never regret making!

If you're willing to take this pledge, go to http://www.liesyoungwomenbelieve.com/ and join others who are signing up online!

Shelby ;D