The One Needful Thing

I love the start of a new year. The blank calendar feels like another chance to pull myself together and do it right for once! It is the time of year when I shine a light in the dark corners and resolve to change.

If you are like me it is tempting to make a whole list of goals concerning exercise, diet, organization, budget, etc. There is nothing wrong with such goals but are they truly important?

I wonder what God considers important for the coming year. What goal would He want me to make priority?

Maybe we can figure out some answers from this account.

Now it came to pass, as they went, that he (Jesus) entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and 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: 38-42)

Is there anything more important than spending time with God in Bible reading and prayer? Probably not. Of course, all of us moms have other responsibilities that need done. We just can't spend our whole day reading our Bible even if we want to. But, to be honest, too often, I push time with the Lord aside to do things that have little value. I don't utilize wisely the time God has given me.

When I thought about goals and priorities, I wondered why I write little about the most "needful thing." When I'm excited about a new recipe or a book I've read, I share about it here on the blog, but rarely do I write about what I've read in my Bible reading.  But if I encourage you to read other books, shouldn't I put priority on encouraging reading the Word of God? If I write tips on making the perfect loaf of bread, why don't I write tips on ways to make His Word a priority?

Maybe I'm silent because I'm afraid that it will appear proud, that I'm tooting my horn. But this past year, two friends, because of their openness in sharing about their Bible reading, encouraged me. My friend Jeanne shared that she was attempting to read through the Bible in a year, and inspired me to do the same. My friend Stephanie challenged me to set apart one day a week to read only God's Word, no other reading of any sort. (I wrote about it here.) The original month-long challenge grew into six months and was a real blessing to my life.

Since I've been blessed by my friend's challenges and since I consider you my friends, I'm going to muster up the courage to begin a discussion here. In the next months I'll continue to share new recipes, gardening tips, and the books I'm reading, but I hope to also challenge each other to make the one needful thing - spending time with the Lord - a priority in our life. In all the noise online with blogs, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter, my goal is to point to the only voice truly worth listening to in 2013.

I'd love to hear from you! How have you been able to make God and His Word the priority in your life? What goals are you setting this new year to make God's Word foremost?

If you are looking for a Bible reading plan for the new year, here is link to a large number of plans!