Friday, November 5, 2010

No Time for Quiet Time?

I'm sorry I haven't been really regular with posting lately, nor with visiting my dear fellow bloggers. There have been so many things I have wanted to write about, but I've just gotten discouraged, or been so overwhelmed with things to do around here. Last week I took our 8 year old to a doctor's appointment, and I prepared and took a nice home-cooked meal to a friend who just recently had their 5th baby. She has other children around the ages of ours, so we stayed to play for a bit. I normally don't leave the house much, except for my weekly grocery trip because we can't afford the gas (and I like to stay home!), but it was nice to be able to visit and bless her family.

Time in God's Word

I hate to admit it, but for some time I neglected to have a quiet time of reading God's Word and prayer. I had read in a book for wives that basically, a wife doesn't need to spend time in God's Word--she should just devote all her time to serving her family and children. Sadly, I kind of let this go to my heart and heeded this advice and didn't make it a priority for awhile to spend time with the Lord, reading His Words to me. While I agree we can't shut ourselves up in a little hole and neglect to take care of our children and husband, I think it is a sad, sad statement to make that this is not an important part of a Christian woman's life. After all, if we don't read God's Word regularly, how can we know what He wants us to do? How can we teach His Word to our children and know how to guide them through life?

Young Girl Reading


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Now, my problem when I came back out of this false way of thinking, was finding the time to devote to reading and prayer. With 6 children 8 and under, and a baby that takes up four hours of my day with just nursing alone, I had to schedule this in. I don't know if you have what I call a "quiet time" with the Lord right now, a time just to yourself reading His Word, and praying as well, but if you don't, I strongly encourage you to make a time for one in your day. If you think you don't have time, and you really want to spend an hour (or more) in the Word, I would suggest you find just a time of 30 minutes you can set apart for this time. Then you can further divide it up from there.

Now, when I say "reading God's Word", I really mean reading God's Word, not something with Scripture in it. I say this to you, because I have done it myself! "Oh, well, this blog is nice, and she talks about God, and uses Scriptures." or "Oh, this book is about God and has Scriptures in it." No, no. We need to be in God's Word, reading it for ourselves, hearing HIS voice, and not someone else's interpretation of it. Be quiet before the Lord in His Word. Now there are times to read nice, uplifting blogs and godly books of course. I will get to that in a minute. If you are doing the 30 minute time block, I suggest you use 10 minutes of it to read Scripture.

For another 10 minutes, pray. Don't forget to express thankfulness to God for all He has done and is doing for you. Don't just give Him a list of your wants and needs, but praise Him. You might also want to keep a prayer journal. You know all those prayer requests you hear about during the day, and you say you will pray for somebody? Do you really take time to get before the Lord on their behalf? Or do you just offer a quick, flitty prayer when you hear about a need and then never remember again? Well, you can use your prayer journal to write those needs down and then pray over them. And then when a prayer gets answered, you can write that down too. It is always nice to go back and remember how the Lord has answered our prayers.

For the last 10 minutes, I have some suggestions. I change around what I do during this time. You can use this time for Scripture memorization. Or, if you have no other time during the day, you could use this time to read one of those devotional books you're wanting to read, or another book that helps you become a better wife or mother or homemaker. This is what I am currently doing during the last 10 minutes because I have no other time for it during the day. This is not a time I use for fiction reading, for that doesn't serve my family but myself.

You may want to set a timer so you don't lose track of time (I would sit for hours reading if I didn't do this, until the kids came to the door, wondering when they were ever going to eat again.) This may seem harsh to "time" your time with the Lord, but it is certainly better than not having time with the Lord. And if you have more than 30 minutes, great! But for me, this is what I have to do right now, and that is better than nothing.

I hope this helps some of you who are wondering how you can fit it all in during the day. Let us always put God first.



This post is part of The Christian Home at the Legacy of Home.  Go check out the whole issue!
This post is also part of the Raising Homemakers link up if you would like to participate.

7 comments:

  1. For our family what works best is me reading the word of God to our children while they are waiting for meals to b cooked. So at least 10-20 minutes before each meal, then between meals and dessert it's our time in prayer.

    But that is what works for 3 little goose 3 and under! I might have to change that later but for now I like it!

    We also do scripture memory during the day, we all love it!

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  2. Mrs. Stam~that is wonderful! I also read to my children~Scriptures before bedtime and I try to do it in the morning as well after they have their own quiet time, and storybooks before nap time. We like to read :)
    They memorize Scriptures during school.

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  3. Mrs. Q,

    What an excellent post in encouraging wives and/or mothers the importance of spending time with the Lord! I must shamefully admit that I had "slacked" a bit in regards to reading my scriptures, but thankfully, I am back to reading my scriptures again, and it has been delightful.

    Anyway, my mother is coming to my house right now and I can't type much more.

    Blessings,

    -Lady Rose

    P.S. Thank you for visiting my blog the other day and leaving a comment. It was nice to "see" you there. I hope that you will "visit" me again soon when you have the time. :)

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  4. Great post Emily! I read to my children almost every night out of the children's Bible. I also turn on Bible CDs for myself during the day. I like to pray on the couch before evrybody wakes up. It's my "coffee time" with God.

    Have a great weekend!

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  5. I think we all go through that at times, Lady Rose. The important thing is that we realize we're missing out on that time and get back on track! I will come and visit you again soon :)

    ~Rosemi. I like to fill our homes with Scripture all day long like that too. And I most definitely like to have my coffee during my reading and prayer time. Ensures I don't fall asleep during the early morning hours.

    God bless~
    Mrs. Q

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  6. "Now, when I say "reading God's Word", I really mean reading God's Word, not something with Scripture in it."

    YES! Thank you! This often goes unsaid, and I'm not sure why, but it's so important! I love reading books that encourage me in my homemaking, in my marriage, etc., but NOTHING can take the place of God's Word! The Bible is the most important Book we will ever read, and it is more than enough!

    With that said... I don't get a true "quiet time" (read more here: http://everyurlwastaken.blogspot.com/2010/09/early-morning-quiet-time.html), but I sure do try, and we read the Bible together as a family at every meal. That's what works for us in this season of life, although I'm hoping that sometime soon I will get a real quiet time routine!

    Great post!

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  7. You are a very wise lady! Bless you Mrs. Q. for knowing the importance of this!

    Jennifer

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