Elder Patrick Kearon spoke at a Brigham Young University devotional on August 18, 2026. With his typical warmth and humor, the Apostle spoke of slowing down and being with Jesus, not just doing things for Jesus.
To explain his point, Elder Kearon poignantly retold the story of Mary and Martha from the New Testament.
“The usual telling is that Martha was caught up in worldly things while Mary attended to the Savior, sacred against secular. Jesus commends the one who chose the sacred—it wasn’t like that,” Elder Kearon says. “Martha was also involved in sacred work, the sacred work of her loving ministry to the Messiah, whom she had invited into her home.”
In Luke 10, we read that Martha was “serving.” Elder Kearon explains that the Greek word behind serving is diakonia, which is the New Testament word for ministry.
“So Luke does not say Martha was distracted from the ministry by worldly tasks, but that her service is pulling her apart, and you might relate to that,” Elder Kearon says.
He goes on to point out two more details from the Greek translation. First, in Luke 10:40, we read that Martha “was cumbered about much serving.” “Cumbered about” in Greek is perispao, which means to drag around from every side. “This is not something Martha is doing,” Elder Kearon says. “It is something that is being done to her.”
Second, in Luke 10:41, the Savior says that Martha is “troubled.” The root word behind troubled means commotion or tumult.
“She is not busy with many things. She is in tumult. But it is all for Him,” Elder Kearon says. “This is a story about a hardworking disciple.”
What the Story Means for Latter-day Saints
Elder Kearon says the account of Mary and Martha is trying to teach us what loving God looks like.
“Ask … what loving God with all one’s heart, might, mind, and strength looks like, and I suspect many of us would see ourselves doing something, serving, building, teaching, organizing, sleeves rolled up. ‘Might’ and ‘strength’ are not restful words. But Luke gives us Mary as a model of what it means to love God: A woman sitting on the floor listening,” he says.
Martha’s hours of service leave her asking, “Lord, dost thou not care?” (Luke 10:40).
“She comes out of it wondering whether He loves her. That is what happens if our service competes with our communion with Him. One way to think of this might be that Martha is doing a great deal for Jesus and not enough with Him,” Elder Kearon teaches.
The Apostle uses the contrast between Mary and Martha to teach an important principle: while we do need to be out serving and doing, “let’s do that after we have made time to sit and focus on the Savior’s words.” The Apostle continues:
“ We want to be the disciple who does the one thing that is needful: sit and listen to Jesus. As we learn of Him, we will see more clearly and selectively what He would have us do and become.
“And when it comes to doing and becoming, if we have taken the time, created the space, [and] slowed down to the point where we can listen to the Savior, the doing and the becoming will be far less frenetic and much more blessed with His peace.”
Listen to the full devotional on BYUtv.org.
