Today's promise: Give your worries to God, for he cares for you
Another busy Christmas?
"Just as being too busy gives you nightmares…"
Ecclesiastes 5:3 NLT
Christmas slippers
While we are called to work hard, we must make sure that our work doesn't so preoccupy us that we endanger our health, our relationships, or our time with God.1
A woman died, leaving behind her husband and one daughter. The little girl soon became the very apple of her daddy's eye. He loved to spend time with her, but because he had to work, they had only their evenings together. After dinner each night they would talk and play games; sometimes she sang for him. He treasured every moment.
One night the little girl announced, "Daddy, I need to go to my room early tonight. I have something I have to do!"
He felt very disappointed, but he let her go. She continued this pattern for a solid month. Finally, Christmas Day arrived, and early in the morning she burst in on her daddy and proudly displayed a pair of crude crocheted slippers she had made for him. It was this project that had taken her away from her father for every evening that month.
Her father thanked her warmly and gave her a big hug, but then he said, "Honey, I would rather have had you with me all those lonely evenings than to have these slippers, as beautiful and comfortable as they are."
[As in the story of Martha and Mary], God wants our presence more than our slippers. He wants our devotion more than our work. It really is a matter of balance.2
A woman died, leaving behind her husband and one daughter. The little girl soon became the very apple of her daddy's eye. He loved to spend time with her, but because he had to work, they had only their evenings together. After dinner each night they would talk and play games; sometimes she sang for him. He treasured every moment.
One night the little girl announced, "Daddy, I need to go to my room early tonight. I have something I have to do!"
He felt very disappointed, but he let her go. She continued this pattern for a solid month. Finally, Christmas Day arrived, and early in the morning she burst in on her daddy and proudly displayed a pair of crude crocheted slippers she had made for him. It was this project that had taken her away from her father for every evening that month.
Her father thanked her warmly and gave her a big hug, but then he said, "Honey, I would rather have had you with me all those lonely evenings than to have these slippers, as beautiful and comfortable as they are."
[As in the story of Martha and Mary], God wants our presence more than our slippers. He wants our devotion more than our work. It really is a matter of balance.2
Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House
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