Mary & Martha Entertaining

If you aren't familiar with Mary & Martha, let me set the scene. The following verses are from Luke 10:38-41
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he
came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Many times I find myself like Martha. Guests are coming for dinner or just to visit. Quick, burst into action, strap on my cleaning belt, run around like a mad woman trying to make sure my house looks perfect before the guests arrive. Become a woman on a mission, let no one get in your way, get crabby with your spouse and children if they aren't cooperating. Lament over how you wish you had more time to make your house sparkle and shine. Hopefully the guests won't notice ____________. Feel free to fill in the blank with whatever thing or place in your house that you are embarrassed about. If you are having dinner, make sure it's something really nice and probably takes hours to prepare and looks like it jumped off the pages of a magazine.
Does this scene sound familiar? This exact scene played out in my home just yesterday morning. Why do we do this to ourselves? Would my wonderful friend have cared if my house wasn't picture perfect? Would she have walked in, looked around and said, "Oh gross, we are not visiting you today?" I am sure she wouldn't have.
Yesterday morning in the midst of the craziness of cleaning and rushing around, my friend called and vented to me about this very thing! She was also in the throes of this crazy cleaning madness because she was having some guests over to her house later that day as well. Why do we do this to ourselves? Do the people coming to visit us care more about how our house looks or are they coming to visit us because they care about spending time with me and/or  my family?
That's when the blog post started forming in my mind. Then I came across this post this morning over here.
So if you come to my home to visit me, I'm going to try my hardest to not run around like a crazy woman hours before you get here worrying about what you'll think if it's not "perfect." I'll spend more time having fun, laughing and enjoying your company and less time worrying about what my home looks like. More time relaxing beforehand and not WORRYING about what you might think of me. because it's not about me!!! I also am also hoping that my friends that are reading this will do the same when I come to visit, it's ok to  leave the toys on the floor, it's ok if your kitchen counters have dirty dishes on them and your floors haven't been vacuumed in a week. By the end of our visit your house will probably be as messy as it was before you cleaned it, if not more so!   I'm coming to see you, not your home. I'm coming to laugh, cry, have fun, talk, play games, hang out and just be with you. I enjoy your company, not your clean house. When I'm 85 I don't think I'll remember the day I came to your house and it wasn't perfect but I'll remember the day I came over and had a perfect day with you!
So I'm going to strive to be more like Mary and less like Martha. If you find me in the kitchen whining about someone not helping me prepare my house, please take me back to this blog post and remind me, I want to be Mary!
So if you've been worrying your house isn't "perfect" or not up to standards to invite some friends over, what are you waiting for? There will never be a time when it's perfect so the perfect time is now!