Weekend Wish

"Oh, to have the faith of Daniel!"

"I want the courage of Joshua."

"Lord, give me the wisdom of Solomon..."

"Am I am Mary or a Martha?"

"David was a man after God's own heart. How would God describe me?"

We often read the Word and study the characters to learn more about ourselves, our God and to give us godly examples to imitate. Peter was fiery and quick tempered, but his impulsiveness gave him a boldness to speak truth without apology. John was kindhearted and meek. Joseph trusted the Lord, despite how unfair life was to him. Nehemiah followed the call of the Lord amidst major oppression. Esther mustered the courage to save a nation. So many stories, so many lessons to learn.

But there is one person in the Bible that we tend to shy away from. Oh, she gets plenty of attention and for some, she has been elevated to a level that places her second only to God the Father. Because of this misplaced worship, we tend to completely disregard her story to avoid the appearance that we worship her as well. Yes, you know who I am talking about - Jesus' mother, Mary.

There is a great pendulum swing in feelings toward Mary - the Catholics hold her in such high esteem that they teach she herself was an immaculate conception. We evangelicals are at the other end of the spectrum, and we barely whisper her name because we don't want to raise her above any other common woman - she was just an instrument of God's choice.

Are you kidding me? Yeah, she was an instrument of God's choice, just like David, Joshua, Joseph, Peter and Esther. Just like us. We need to get past this and see what we can learn from this humble girl.

So my weekend wish for you is actually an assignment. I want you to read Mary's story. Take a look at Luke 1 and 2, and write down some observations about this gal. Her story is unique to say the least, but we have a lot to learn from her. Then next week we'll compare notes.

Sound like a good plan?

Have a great weekend, gals. We are 7 days away from Christmas!