When my granddaughter was two, I read her a book that has become a classic for children  – Clifford the Big Red Dog. After we finished reading, my granddaughter looked at me very seriously and said, “When I was a dog…” Then she went on to relate all the heroic things she’d done as a dog.

 

When I was a dog…

I use that story when I teach writers’ workshops, because that’s what novelists should try to achieve – to write so vividly that they pull their readers deeply into the characters’ lives. Like my granddaughter, the reader “becomes the dog.”

You may remember a fad that swept the Christian world a little more than a decade ago – the WWJD bracelets. What Would Jesus Do. The idea was to remind Christians to strive to become  like Jesus. I wore my bracelet – a gift from my daughter-in-law – until it fell apart.

I wish I could tell you that I’m always successful at emulating Jesus, but I’m definitely not there yet. Just this morning my husband and I had an argument about his T-shirts. A few days ago, I mentioned that I was going to go through his stash and throw away the worst of them. I thought that he’d agreed to that. Evidently not.

I was still grumbling about the whole situation a half hour after he went to work in his shop wearing one of his retrieved-from-the-garbage T-shirts. So here’s me talking to me [Whine alert!] : “For goodness sakes, I’m the one who does most of the housecleaning around here. And, for goodness sakes, whoever needs that many T-shirts anyway? (Yes, I was petty enough to count them.) And for goodness sakes . . . ” You get the idea.

What Would Jesus Do? I’m pretty sure He would remind me to be grateful that my husband needs old T-shirts to wear when he’s building beautiful stringed instruments (a mandolin on the way!) and also when he’s doing more mundane things like mowing the grass – so I don’t have to.

 

I retreated to my Bible, the New Testament book of Luke, and read the story about the sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha was the obsessive-compulsive type, cleaning, scurrying, and feeling righteous. Her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and simply listened. When Martha complained, Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10: 41-42, New Revised Standard Version)

To paraphrase my granddaughter: When I was a  Martha,  Jesus reminded me that I should be a Mary.

How about you? What’s your tendency in life? Martha or Mary? Or are you more into Clifford, the Big Red Dog?

(Thank you to Kandice Huyck for permission to use her photographs of her beautiful golden retrievers, Jak and Gracie!)