The "Choosing" Ground...a menopausal point of view

I received a beautiful email from a precious friend just a day ago where she told me that this place on earth is our "choosing ground". And then she followed with what she wanted her choices to be...she wanted to be VICTORIOUS for Christ!! It reminded me of one of my favorite Bible verses...Joshua 24:15 "And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua chose wisely!

Now let's take a look at the choice Pilate
had to make in the book of Mark. Verses 6-15 show Pilate at the feast suggesting Jesus be released to the crowd. But he gave the people the choice of whom they wanted to be released ... Jesus or Barabbas. They chose Barabbas. The notes in my Bible give an indication of why...Jesus represented the law of God. Barabbas represented lawlessness over the law. The people chose lawlessness and they chose poorly. Today every person must also answer the question that Pilate asked the crowd "What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?" This is the universal question that every person must face. It is as relevant a question for you as it was for Pilate. What will you do with Jesus. What will you choose?

The above seems easy to me. I can resoundingly scream Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. But now let's take a look at Martha and Mary. Every time I hear this story and I have had devotions with it with many friends, I have to admit, I get it. Mary chose wisely. But I still have the questions...didn't Martha also choose wisely? She chose to prepare for the people. She was diligent in her duties. She was a worker bee. She wanted everything to be ready and nice for the guests. I mean someone had to do it right? Or is that my menopause kicking in again?

I want to choose wisely. I want to sit at the feet of Jesus. I sat at his feet yesterday and spoke to Him and loved Him and heard from Him and then I went to Target to grocery shop....and chose poorly! I am trying so hard to be a good steward of my $$ that I was watching very carefully as the checker outer (see, I can't even recall good terms anymore) was ringing up my bill. She scanned my avocados that were the size of postage stamps as "large" avocados that rang up $5.97. I stopped her nicely and said "I'm sorry, those are the small avocados and they are on sale for $.89/lb." To which she replied...no, I went by the sticker. They are $2.49/lb. I asked her to please check again. She pulled them out of the bag and rang them up again and they rang up to $3.18. She threw them in the bag.....let that one slide. I said thank you. But then she gets to my meat...I specifically bought the meat that was on sale...There were stickers the size of 2" X 2" on it with a big $3 OFF on them ... she did not pull the sticker off. So I stopped her and said "excuse me, those had instant $3 stickers on them". She pulled the meat out of the bag...ripped the stickers off...threw the meat in the bag and continued. I did not say thank you.

Now, I've been having menopausal issues for about a year. I'll spare you the details but to say I fly off the handle and have had just about every person close to me mad at me at one time or another is an understatement. My ovaries are exploding and need to come out but the "old ticker" just won't allow it. I'm standing there in Target begging the Lord to help me "choose" wisely and be nice but I wanted to throw things at this young tart of a girl who was throwing my stuff. My son, that sweet kid, helped keep me somewhat in check. Most days he and my husband look at me like they are living with an alien. So Josh winks at me and says "its ok, Mom"....and out loud...just in case she didn't catch my hot flash that was coming on..I say "No, Josh, this is not ok. She keeps ringing up things wrong and I'm trying to be a good steward of our money. I have to watch her like a hawk and she just ruined our bread by throwing the tub of country crock on it. When you go to work...don't behave this way. This is wrong wrong wrong!" Guess you could say, I chose poorly. Poor Josh..he was so embarrassed he could have crawled out of Target. The checker outer was completely unphased. Next in line please.....

This mornings devotion......John 15:16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you". Thank you, Jesus. I can't imagine standing before the Lord after menopause/through menopause/during menopause without the knowledge of grace and knowing Jesus will still stand over me with his white garment robe and cover me.