It was a dark and stormy night. The wind was howling. The thunder was crashing. The…

Wait. That’s not right.

Actually, it was a perfectly normal night and the only thing crashing was my foot into the side of the bed as I blindly stumbled toward the room of my howling 9-month-old son.

He was hungry. And teething. And now, at 3 a.m., I was making my third trip of the night to his nursery while muttering all kinds of unpleasantries—which were likely being echoed back into my bedroom through the baby monitor that sat above our bed. The bed where my husband continued to blissfully sleep. The bed that I really wanted to be in but noooooo…duty was calling—and frustration was answering the phone.

“I’m so tired. I just want to sleep. Why won’t you let me sleep?!?” I yelped at my son. (For the record, he did not respond to my angst-filled queries). When I finally crawled back into bed, the complaining was still bubbling up out of my mouth.

“I have the right to complain because I’m so tired,” I told myself.

But then a bigger voice consumed my thoughts.

“Do you really have that right, Sarah?”

Sure, I was tired, cranky and over it. But none of that gives me the “right” to behave badly, to be rude or to gripe about it endlessly.

I hate admitting when I’m wrong. But I was wrong about being right that night. Thankfully, I’m not alone. I have a Biblical soul sister and her name is Martha.

In the book of Luke, Jesus came to visit the pair of sisters: Mary and Martha. Martha went straight to work prepping the house, preparing the meal, etc., while her sister Mary sat fellowshipping with their guest. Growing increasingly frustrated that Mary wasn’t helping her, Martha finally voiced her complaints.

“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

In typical Jesus fashion, he redirected Martha to the real issue at hand. She was so caught up in the doing, that she was missing the bigger picture. She had misplaced her focus. And instead of being filled with peace in His presence, she was becoming consumed by her own feelings and sense of rights being violated.

Haven’t we all done that? We’re human. It comes naturally. Especially when you’re a sleep-deprived, night-of-the-walking-dead zombie mom just trying to put one foot in front of the other and not face plant.

But here’s the kicker, folks. It’s not about being right or wrong. It’s about perspective. It’s about choosing, as Jesus said, “what is better.” It’s about letting go of the things we can’t control and focusing on what matters—those things that bring joy, peace and positivity to our lives.

Whatever challenges you’re facing…let’s choose to be wrong about being right. Let’s choose to be Mary instead of Martha. Let’s choose peace and to view things from God’s perspective. Let’s choose coffee and lots of it.

And most importantly, let’s choose to not do this alone. There’s a God who’s got our backs and ready to ride out the storms of life with us if we’ll just let him.