Laurie's Articles

Focus

Laurie A. Moyer

Sir Isaac Newton formally stated some of the most useful concepts in what are called the Laws of Motion. The basic gist is that things moving tend to stay moving and things still tend to stay still. Newton’s concepts of physics have great philosophical implications to our daily habits. It is profoundly simple, yet we struggle to master this idea in application.

Exercise, diet, hospitality and personal study are all activities of habit. Once you have established a habit of a certain behavior it is easy to continue. Conversely, if you are not accustomed to doing a particular activity it can be very difficult to pick it up.

Women are susceptible to lapses in good habits over the course of their lifetimes. Perhaps that is because there are so many changing demands on our time and energy, especially if there are young children at home. It is our responsibility to care for the physical needs of our families. It is our responsibility to be keepers of the home. It is also partly our responsibility to see to the spiritual upbringing of our children. That is the short list. There are often more things needing done than there are hours in which to do them. So what gives?

Naturally, we prioritize. We pick out the things we deem most needed and allow the rest to slide for a while. It would be impossible to keep the daily requirements of a house and young family and visit all the sick and shut-in and teach all the Bible classes and have all the home Bible studies with friends which need to be done. Our primary responsibility is to our family, and we cannot be replaced in that area.

There are many good deeds and worthwhile activities, but they are only worth our “spare” time, not the time we should be giving to that greater task. This of course does not mean we do not do the good deeds at all, just that they come down the order in a priority list.

But what happens when those less pressing things become neglected for too long? When a young mother declines to teach Bible classes for the sake of training her own children in an adult class period she has made the correct choice, but that choice should be a temporary one. When the same mother spends more time attending to the needs of her little ones at home during the week than encouraging the needy and shut-in she must see this as a temporary, not a permanent choice. Her life will not always be ordered to the same necessary demands, and when these immediate demands change she must be ready to change her activities.

There are many services needing to be done which women are uniquely suited to supply. Most of them require much time and effort and are, therefore, not the easiest choices to make. We choose to do them because we know they need done, and they become easier every time we do them. That is the nature of habits. Consequently, if we allow ourselves to get out of the habit of doing those things, even if it is for the best of reasons, we loose our inertia and it becomes more difficult for us to commit to doing them.

The church is a family, a body (Romans 12:4-8). This body requires every part of it to do its share (Ephesians 4:16) and will be crippled if they do not. If we allow ourselves to become satisfied in not doing the work needing done because we are excused for the present, whatever the reason, it can become a habit that keeps us from developing into the women we need to be in the future.

The older women are to be our examples and teachers (Titus 2:3-5), not only in how to care for our own families, but in taking care of the needs of others (I Timothy 5:9-10). That implies that they have developed these skills themselves. The busy workers Paul spoke of to Timothy were widows who, if they were not presently able to engage in the work of hospitality and benevolence, had developed a reputation for good works. They were not sitting back and letting others do these things when they had the capability themselves. The future of the church depends to some degree on all of us remaining active to the full extent of our particular and present ability level.

If you are in the group of women who temporarily cannot devote large amounts of time to helping others you should be content in the knowledge that Christ only asks you to do what you can (Mark 14:8.) If that is your commitment– to always do what you can– you will be moving forward, not shrinking back from the opportunities to do good. You can look forward eagerly to the time when you can be more involved, and not allow yourself to remain in the background by force of inertia.