How do you as a mom handle your time with the Lord? Do you count devotion time with the kids as your personal devotion time? Do you get up earlier than everybody else so you can read your Bible and pray? When everybody goes to bed at night? Or maybe during afternoon quiet time?
Have your Bible study/quiet time habits changed since you had children? If so, how?
I've been giving this topic a bit of thought lately and I'd love to hear what works for my friends. Thanks!
10 comments:
I'm still working out the quiet time thing.
I was born in Dunedin...know where that is? Sounds like you live in my old stomping ground. ;)
Come by the Land of Pink sometime.
(BTW, I love the picture in your header!!)
This one changes for me I'd like to say I am all scheduled out I attempt the morning but I never seem to finish before the kids wake and need there morning attention so I also try at naps and if I still don't complete it or have even started I always have the evening .. I thought lately about having a morning devotion with the kids and switching mine to night altogether that way I get something early in the morning and I can go to bed thinking on my LORD at night.. but I have yet to find something to go through with the kids cause I'd like a small dewotion so I don't have to think so much so early in the morning yo..
Remember what Phyllis always told us Tami? She had 5 kids and the only time she could spend with the Lord was at 5:00 a.m. every morning before everyone was up. I just CAN'T bring myself to do it...although I have sort of tried. My best (although inconsistent) time is around 6:30 a.m. and even then I only get about 20 uninterrupted minutes. Oh remember the days of our 10 chapters a day? Hours with the Lord. Sigh! We'll have that again one day. In the meantime, we need to meditate even on one verse throughout the day and offer up prayer as we sit and rise and do dishes and laundry and, and, and.
Kelly
You mean you're supposed to spend time with God everyday?
JUST KIDDING!
Hmm, I spend a lot of time praying while I'm doing things like showering, in the car, washing dishes, etc. But actually "meditating" on Scripture has always been difficult, especially now that I'm working. One thing I did do that I was routinely doing was working through just a small few verses and then writing down thing that those verses brought to life. Sometimes it was a Psalm, sometimes a Proverb, and sometimes an epistle. Sometimes I get a wild hair and read a whole book. But I would always try to write about it, because writing it down always seemed to solidify it for me.
This article has been most helpful:
http://www.biblicalspirituality.org/youcan.html
but I don't keep a bible in every room, more like one on each floor. If I get up before the kids, I read. Sometimes I ask my husband for a 15 minute break so I can read. Sometimes I realize they are playing nicely, so I read.
This has been the most reading I have been able to do in a while. During the harder times with an infant, for example, the Holy Spirit brought certain concepts and passages to my attention and I would meditate on what those passages meant for months, if not longer. It was during that time that God used the word I had hidden in my heart in order for me to grow. I got to understand those passages much deeper.
I also seemed to be stuck in exodus for a year. I never remembered where I had left off because my reading was so erratic. I finally decided to skip the Pentateuch for now and read the other narratives, and went to Judges. I have been able to read so much more and learn so much. I will go back to the other chapters at another time, but for now, I'm reading what I can.
I have also been reading Having a Mary Spirit from Joanna Weaver. It has built upon what God has been teaching me about walking in the spirit vs. the flesh. And it has helped me draw closer to God in my weaknesses, even if that is time constraints or fatigue.
Although I must say, Tami, that the most encouraging to me was when you would remind me that it does get (a bit) easier as our kids grow older. Your right. It does.
Hey Sis,
I find for me, getting up before everyone else works (4:30 or 5:30 am) because everyone is in dream land and the house is QUIET! LOL
Zinnada<><
I'm new to your blog. (via Mouro family blog) I just had a little girl nine wks. ago. (so I'm not back to my "normal" schedule. I am also a pastor's wife and we live beside the church.
My time with the Lord is at 6 am. I shower about 5:30 then I get a granola bar, a drink and walk over to my hubby's office. It's quiet and there are no interruptions. This time is so important to me.
I've had people tell me to relax don't worry you'll get things going again. Pray throughout the day, read your bible as you can. I think those are great also, but that morning time with just me and Him are a MUST! So, that is my priority, even over baby. I try to schedule my children around "my time" with the Lord.
-Heather
Hey Tami!!!!!!! It is Delana. How in the world are you!!!!!!!Ohhhh, this question is sooo difficult! I change it every week. i am a planner and have been trying to plan new ways to get the time I used to have (bf- before kids) for a long time. I get up at 5 like I have for a long time but my kids sometimes wake up soon after that. A godly mentor of mine told me to make my kids stay in thier rooms until 7. I have tried it this week and it helps (with some interuptions of course). But really, since I have had kids, I have come to know God's grace and understanding in a way I never knew. I could always do what I wanted. Pray, read (my hobbie), study whenever. NOT NOW! And it has been hard to let go of. God has truly shown me my selfishness since I have had kids and He continues to gently change me. But God's grace is incredible! SO I suggest talk with Scott (Ronnie and I have lots of what I call "family business meetings")and see what you can work out but then TRUST GOD with whatever time you get. (MUCH easier said than done for me!!!!!!!!)
SO good to hear about you. I need lots of advice from YOU. DO you homeschool? I do. and always need encouragement.Email me sometime.
Hi Tami! This is Vanessa! Just found this through your Facebook, and this is something I've struggled w/for almost 5 years now!! One of my friends showed us how she split up her prayer list into groups and did a group per day (w/some people on it every day, like spouse and children), and it made such a difference! I felt like I had to pray for EVERYONE every day, but that's not the case, because God knows! So I do that now, and it enables me to have a fuller devotion time (which has to be early in the morning), and then feel better about my prayer time as well!
I have no advice. I suck! I do pray a WHOLE LOT more than I ever have!!!!! That is for dang sure. I quote scripture at night when I am trying to fall asleep. I really do need to do a scheduled devotion. I really do suck. Do pray for me when you're doing your devotions, would ya?
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