my umpteenth blog

I was really grateful for conference this past weekend. In the Sunday afternoon session, I was sitting there, mind wandering, thinking (of all things) about Mary and Martha. The story of Martha being "cumbered about with many things" has always frustrated me (a few thoughts on that- many people demonize Martha for not dropping everything and joining her sister at the Savior's feet. I think that this is not the correct interpretation for the incident. Mary was doing what she thought best. Martha was serving others in the way she thought best [they had to eat, right?]. How can we possibly fault someone for performing a small but necessary service? I feel that the rebuke came to her not because of her choice of activity, but because of her momentary loss of focus. For a moment, instead of focusing on her act of service, she was overwhelmed by the unfairness of the situation and focused more on her sister's actions than her own. I take this story as an admonition to maintain focus and monitor my own motives instead of worrying about the motives of others). I was thinking about a friend and how this story applied to her situation, and then (I'm not sure on this, but I think it was) Elder Schweitzer stood up, not 5 minutes after I started following this mental thread and began to talk about Mary and Martha. Everything else aside, it was a very simple tender mercy- more of a spiritual nudge, really- showing me that I and my concerns are not unnoticed. Just something to say "hey, I know you're there", which is little enough, but, you know, timely and wonderful.