A Kind Yoke (devotional # 4)

As mothers, how often have you had the thought that you don't know if you could have endured what Mary experienced?

Secret-keeping, shame, separation from family, being misunderstood, having a child unlike anyone else, trying to understand your place in the relationship with your son & Heavenly Savior, the indescribable pain of watching your child die, and grief.

We can't imagine it, can we? She was given a unique call to fulfill and she did it faithfully. We've touched on these subjects the last few days, but HOW did she do it?

This fall I attended a Beth Moore Simulcast. It was my first one, actually. One thing I admire about Beth is that she allows the Lord to direct her topics when speaking at these events. Beth spoke on kindness, and although it was very good, it didn't seem to speak directly into my life at that moment. I had sense enough to take copious notes, however, knowing that at some point I'd need to remind myself of what I had learned that day. In contemplating Mary's life, Beth's topic of kindness came to mind. This might just give us the insight we need to see how Mary lived a life of faith and obedience.

In one of Beth's points she talked about Matthew 11:30, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." It's so hard sometimes for me to wrap my brain around that concept when life can be so hard. Then I thought, God didn't say life would be easy, He said the yoke would be easy. Easy is accurately translated as "kind" from the root word philanthropia.

A kind yoke. His binding us to Himself and directional navigation is kind/easy. He wants us to walk where He leads. We may be mired in the mud of life, but HE leads. We don't have to worry about our Creator's good purposes for us.

The burden is light, because He never gives us more than we can carry WITH HIS ASSISTANCE. He wants you in that place where the burden of life may SEEM unbearable, but He gently reveals that with Him, the One carrying the weight of direction and transformation, the burden of your obedience to Him is light!

So, I ask today, can we accept the kind yoke and fully depend on Him? I tend to think that Mary understood that within herself, she wasn't able, but with God all things were possible.