{Editor’s Note: Today’s post was written by Alisia Baker. You can read more about Alisia at the end of the post.}

Mary or Martha?

I come from a long line of women who think that we must always have our house presentable in case someone drops by, always decorate perfectly when hosting a shower, and always serve homemade goods for an event. I was taught at a very young age that you always keep a yellow cake mix in your pantry because you just never know when you might need to make something quickly. Maybe it has something to do with my last name being “Baker.”

These hosting rules have not always led me to make the smartest decisions though…

Recently a coworker of mine was struggling through several issues with her marriage and job. She caught me at my locker as we were both getting ready to leave work, we talked for several minutes, and I tried to encourage her about all the overwhelming stresses in her life. I sensed that she wanted to keep talking, and I felt called to invite her over to my apartment so that we could pray and talk some more, but in the back of my head I remembered all of the cleaning I needed to do first. I was too embarrassed to invite her over, and I dropped the ball by quickly wrapping up the conversation and stated that I would be praying for her. [Read more...]