Week 31: Focus on Jesus - Mary
Pardon the Mess with Scarlet Hiltibidal - Christian Motherhood, Biblical Parenting, Raising Christian Kids
Scarlet Hiltibidal and Christian Parenting
4.9 • 849 Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (John 12:3)
In the story of Mary and Martha, Mary was the sister who understood the big picture and spent a lot of time at the feet of Jesus. First, she sat at his feet as a disciple would do and listened to Jesus as he taught. Later, she anointed Jesus’s feet with expensive perfume and washed them with her hair.
It would have been easy for Mary to be distracted and overwhelmed like her sister became. There was a lot going on and there were a lot of people in her house! Jesus was staying with them and the end of his ministry was nearing. He had also just resurrected their brother! Mary could have multitasked her way through that dinner, but she focused her whole self on Jesus instead.
We live in a culture that tells us we can have it all and do it all, and we can multitask and be more efficient. But we can’t multitask Jesus. Jesus was not suggesting that Mary (or Martha) completely disregard their responsibilities, but he was calling them to focus fully on the most important thing, which was him in that moment.
What would it look like for our families to focus on Jesus without distractions? As parents, we can model abiding in Christ and encourage our kids to do the same—to experience the gift of learning from him about eternal things instead of rushing around focusing on the present.
This week, let’s pray that our kids say no to distractions and grow in their ability to solely focus on Jesus and truly abide in his presence.
Jesus, thank you for being our teacher and our Savior. I pray that __________ chooses to sit at your feet and focus on you. As they do the work you have called them to, help them to remember that you are the most important thing. When they are distracted, as they inevitably will be, draw nearer to them. Amen.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Christian Parenting. |
| 0:03.5 | Hey friends, welcome back to Pardon the Mess. |
| 0:16.7 | I'm your host, Courtney Defeo, and y'all, time is flying. |
| 0:19.7 | It is April 6th. And my youngest child, |
| 0:23.4 | the baby, Larson Tarson, Tarsi, too. Do y'all have like so many versions of their? |
| 0:28.8 | We also call her Lemon. I don't know why. But she is 17 tomorrow. Like, what the heck? And then |
| 0:35.1 | in a couple weeks, well, in three weeks, I'm going to pick up |
| 0:38.0 | Ella from her freshman year. She moves out May 1st, which just was the fastest year ever. I don't know if y'all feel like this, but someone told me that college goes faster than high school. And I'm like, please don't say that again. That is so sad. But anyway, how are you guys? I hope you're well. We're creeping into the last weeks of our |
| 0:55.3 | prayer journal, praying together every Monday of the school year. And I hope it's been beneficial |
| 0:59.7 | for you. It definitely has for me just to think about this year. We've been thinking about |
| 1:03.6 | different people in the Bible and just the cloud of witnesses, the people that have gone before us, |
| 1:08.2 | and what we can learn about God through their lives. And I love that we're focusing on Mary this week. |
| 1:13.4 | And the idea is that we pray that our kids and our families focus on Jesus. |
| 1:17.1 | A couple of weeks ago, we told the whole story of Mary and Martha. |
| 1:20.8 | And Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus. |
| 1:23.5 | And Martha was the one running around and distracted. |
| 1:26.4 | And maybe just what we can learn and what we prayed |
| 1:29.3 | about then. |
| 1:29.7 | It's just perfectionism, that we're not so busy doing that we forget just to be present. |
| 1:34.8 | And that's such a great parenting lesson, and it's a great faith lesson for our kids, too. |
| 1:39.8 | And so I want to remind us all that I don't feel too bad. |
| 1:43.1 | If you see yourself in Martha, you see |
... |
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