Honest Christian Conversations
A weekly podcast dealing with cultural and spiritual issues within the Christian faith.
Honest Christian Conversations
How Do I Come Up With A Bible Study Routine? (MINISODE)
Quiet time with God looks different for everyone depending on their season of life. The struggle to find quiet time with God amidst the beautiful chaos of family life is real and raw.
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Hey friends, welcome back to another mini-sode. I'm excited to discuss today's topic. It's going to be encouraging and uplifting for you. I know I went hard with a perfect time for that episode to come out, especially after the one we did with George Cisneros, where we were learning how to put God first above everything else and love him unconditionally. Debbie's episode just kind of went right into that as well and gave us practical ways that we can put God first, even when life is difficult, and if you're a mom, life gets hectic. Sometimes you got to wake up at all wee hours of the morning just to find that quiet time with God. But sometimes you don't get that and you have to learn how to work around it, and the episode I did with Debbie Howell gave us some great tips on how to make that happen. So if you haven't listened to that one yet, go back and listen to it. You're going to be encouraged, uplifted and have new ideas of how to freshen up your relationship with God if it's feeling a bit stale. So today we're going to discuss quiet time with God. How does that look? It's going to be different for everybody depending on the season you're in, so I'm going to speak from the season that I'm in.
Speaker 1:Many of you know, I have five kids, ranging from my oldest being 18 to my youngest being almost three. I am currently potty training my youngest. I have two elementary school kids. I have one who is in junior high Yikes for me, he's almost in high school. I can't even believe that this season is not easy as a mom, and on top of that, I'm a wife as well. So my loyalties are divided between my spouse, god, and my children and the podcast, my writing, all those other little things that I do on the side. If you're anything like me, you're feeling right now, maybe slightly discouraged. How am I supposed to have quiet time? There's not enough time in the day. Can't we get more than 24 hours in a day, god please? I completely get that Sometimes we're going to have to sacrifice, which brings us back to the episode I did with George Cisneros, where he talked about we need to sacrifice, to put God first and to show him that we love him above everything else.
Speaker 1:So that's what we need to do, and that's what I need to do, and that's what I need to do, and it has been hard. I'm not going to lie, it's been hard. Being a mom really shows you how selfish you are. And boy have I been selfish. I've been working on it. I've been working on it, and I'm sure you're working on it too, and that's what you're screaming at me right now. We need to give ourselves grace, but at the same time, we cannot use that as an excuse to continue to do what we want to do and just say, oh well, I need the grace, I'm having a bad day, so I need to do this. We should always be putting God first, regardless if we're having a good or bad day.
Speaker 1:So, at least for my routine, where I'm at in my life right now, I wake up anywhere between five or six o'clock in the morning. It depends on when I wake up, but I do have an alarm that goes off at 620 if, for some reason, I'm not up before that. So, 620 every morning. I try try being the key word here to pray. Pray for others, thank God for being alive and the breath that I have. I'm trying to incorporate more depth to what I'm thanking him for the way my body works, the way my mind works, nature, things like that Just trying to remind myself that God has created everything and to be in awe of him. So I've been trying to add that into my prayer in the morning. I also pray for friends and family, anyone who comes to my mind at that point.
Speaker 1:But again, sometimes my prayers they sound like a skittery squirrel who's running around like crazy. And I have to keep my eyes open while I'm doing it because if I don't, I'm laying down and I will easily fall asleep. It has happened many times. I'm sure it's happened to you as well. So I pray with my eyes closed, laying down in my bed, and when I'm done with that, I will get up and I will prop myself up, turn on my little nightlight I have by the bedside and I will read the Bible. Sometimes God speaks to me through one verse, sometimes just a little chunk is enough and I will sit there and I will try to meditate on it and think about it more in depth. And I try to do it often, but sometimes I forget and I just jump right into it because I know my kids will be getting up soon.
Speaker 1:I will pray before I start reading and ask God to tell me what it is he wants me to know, and sometimes I feel like he told me something right then and there, and a lot of times I don't feel like he did right then and there. Sometimes he'll do it later in the day. He'll show me throughout life. I might be sleeping at night and have a dream about something. He speaks to me, but sometimes it's not immediate, right when I would like it to be, and you have to be okay with that, because he's not here to do what we want in our timing. His timing is perfect and he knows what he's doing At some point.
Speaker 1:Usually when I'm reading, one or most of my kids will be up. At that point They'll be in and out, so either I'll read out loud if my husband ends up being awake too, then I'll read out loud so that they can all hear it. If not, then I'll still read to myself while they're rolling around on the bed doing stuff. At the end of the night. I try to include my kids in things Throughout the day. I will ask them what are you thankful for At the end of the day? I do it again, and I'm not always consistent with this part, because at the end of the day, as a mom, I'm exhausted and sometimes I just want to be done and I want them to go to bed so I can do what I want to do, which I know is wrong. So I've been more intentionally dying to that part of myself.
Speaker 1:But when I do this, I will have my eldest son read the Bible a chapter, a page, whatever he wants to read to all of us out loud, page, whatever he wants to read to all of us out loud and then I will ask them what they learned from God today and they'll tell me. And then we'll pray. And I did something different last night and I'm going to try to do it more. When I ask them to pray, I usually say think of someone or something outside of your immediate family or outside of you to pray for. I'm trying to get them to understand that there's more outside there besides our family and what we want. So last night I did a little different and I asked them what do you want to pray for? And they each told me what they wanted. One of them had a headache, the other one was sore from working out at school and I just switched it up and I said okay, you're going to pray for this for your brother. You're going to pray for this for your sister. You're going to pray for this and I will pray for that, and we just switched each other's prayers and that might be something that I include as well.
Speaker 1:But these are just different ways that I do things and I'm not consistent with it, like I said, in the evening as much as I am in the morning with what I do, with my morning routine. If mom is in a better mood, everyone else will be as well, and that's what I've learned is that if I'm staying close to God, the rest of my day goes well and everyone else's day will also go well. So I try really hard to stay focused on my morning routine. The evening one is where I struggle a lot, because life happens, you get busy and I never know how to make it work for me. That's what I'm going to work on is being more intentional. So here's my question for you how are you going to be more intentional Whether it's a morning routine, afternoon routine or an evening routine that you start? Pick one, figure out what you're going to do.
Speaker 1:Listen to the episode with Debbie Howell so you can figure out different ways that you can implement things into that routine that you want to do and start being consistent with that. Give yourself grace, give yourself time. It's going to take some time to adjust to it. It's not just going to come easy. But you need to work on that and just work on that one. You don't have to branch out and try to do three different routines for a morning, evening and afternoon.
Speaker 1:Like I said, just pick one that you want to work on that you think will work best with your schedule and everyone else's schedules, and hone all your desire and all your focus into that routine and make that one into one that you consistently do and then over time you can go into a different routine. Now that I have gotten better and more used to my morning routine, I can focus now on how to make a better evening routine. That's today's episode. I hope I encouraged you. I hope I gave you ideas and tips. Please go back and listen to Debbie Howell's episode. It will encourage you, it will strengthen you and equip you. God bless, Talk to you later.
