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when you get too busy...

It's easy to get too busy--believe me, I know!

With a husband and kids and school and laundry and cooking and writing and...everything else, sometimes life is just plain crazy. I look at everything I have to get done, and I know I could never fit a single thing extra into the day. For that matter, not all the stuff that has to get done gets done, either.

 Life is crazy and overwhelming at times (or if you're like me, maybe you feel more like it is only calm and peaceful at times and crazy the rest of the time!). It's easy to get distracted by all the stuff going on, and wander away from what's really important:

 "After the Feast was over, while His parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking He was in their company, they traveled on for a day." (Luke 2:43 & 44a)

 Just like Mary and Joseph, we very easily find ourselves walking off and leaving the Savior behind. And also like them, a lot of the time we don't even realize we've done it.

 That has been the case for me lately. First I was wrapped up in releasing the story I've written, then in watching the numbers of sales. Then we were searching for a new place to live, hoping to get away from our current housemate and away from the big city. Then it was vacation time in Arkansas, where plans were interrupted by a farming accident that put Nathan's dad in the hospital with a broken back (For those of you who know Scott, he's home recovering and moving around a lot better than I would have expected, though he's definitely still in a lot of pain and has a lot of recovery time ahead of him). Now we're back in Toledo packing for our move, trying to get the house presentable in the meantime so our landlords can show it to prospective renters. Thankfully the kids have stayed with my parents, who have graciously agreed to be run ragged for the next couple of weeks before driving all the way up here to deliver the kids and see the new house.

 All that said, I read Joyce Meyer's devotional this morning (something I haven't done in an ashamedly long time) and realized something:

 I all the hustle and bustle and mess, I've left the Savior behind.

 And I have to admit, this isn't the first time it has happened. I can look back at quite a few times in my life when I've looked around and realized that I wasn't standing next to Him anymore.

 For Jesus's parents, after they realized Jesus wasn't with them they searched for Him for 3 days. When they finally found Him, Mary asked, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." (Luke 2:48b)

 Normally, I don't know that I would see anything inherently good about parents having to search for their son for 3 days. I mean, can you imagine that? Talk about being frantic and terrified! This time, though, I'm glad Jesus's parents had to search for Him.

 Because you see, they searched so that we don't have to.

 When Mary asked her son why in the world he would make them crazy with worry, His answer was, "Why were you searching for Me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" (vs. 49)

 Thanks to Mary's desperate search for her son, when I looked around and saw that Jesus wasn't right there next to me like I had expected, I knew just where to look.

 See, the Savior was right where I had left Him, with the Father. I may have wandered off to do my own thing, but He hadn't gone anywhere.

 So if it's been a while, pull out that Bible that sometimes gets forgotten. Like the teachers in the temple courts, sit with Jesus for a little while and marvel at all He has to say. Be amazed by Him again.

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Thoughts? I would love to hear them!
~Mandy

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