Just for a Moment

The other day as I gathered up my weary bones to face yet another day of laundry and dishes, sniffles and dilemmas over homework and the ever nagging question, "what's for dinner?" I felt weighed down. In a moment of overwhelmed distraction, I turned to the inside back cover of my church magazine, The Ensign, where I noticed the print of a lovely young lady. Something in her eyes reminded me of my Anna. Being taken by the artists work, I looked at the title, it said, "That Good Part". Hmm. I stopped and thought. The words sounded familiar to me, but I wasn't sure what scripture story it was referring to, nor the woman who was being portrayed. It's Esther, I guessed. Then I read the caption:

“Mary . . . sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
“But Martha was cumbered about much serving. . . .
“And Jesus . . . said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
“But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:39–42).

It made me weepy to sit there and look at Mary and wonder at my own very cumbered life. I began to pray, "Let me find 'the good part', like Mary".

Soon after, I was heading down to the river with my two little ones. I like to run down there while they ride in the jogger. On this particular day, I was again feeling very "cumbered" as I tried to squish my run in before Daniel's nap. I approached the trail, and the thought came to me, "Don't run. Just sit and enjoy the river". I couldn't help but think how unproductive that would be. I might as well go home and get a head start on all of the other "stuff" I needed to do. In spite of that thought, I took a deep breath and said, "Why not?" As I held Daniel over the river so that he could feel the cold water and watched Margaret throw stones downstream, she turned to me and said, "This is fun, Mom". Sitting on a smooth stone so that I could feel the cool water too, I said, "What'd you say?" She repeated, "This is fun".
I looked down at Daniel's cute chubby feet and then over at Margaret's chubby little hands and I thought, "She has chosen that good part and it will not be taken away from her".
Somehow, I was able to leave the hustle and bustle of the morning and touch "that good part" of the day before it rushed downstream.