A Frog In My Soup has definitely been lacking in the Meat and Potatoes department. Lot’s of side dishes and a few desserts here and there, but the real substance of the meal is missing these days. Blame it on summer? or maybe on the fact that I’m working my tail off to get the house ready to be put on the market??? I don’t really know, but my daily Bible reading has declined as well.
Ah, now it all makes sense, right? Isn’t it amazing what a huge difference it makes when we are in the Word of God to some extent each day? It is for me for sure! It is the very life and essence of my thoughts and definitely creates much more focus and purpose when I make sure I’m spending time in the Word each day.
Prayer …. yup that’s in there too, for me these days it’s the quickly-throughout-the-day type of prayer that is getting me through, not the sustained, time-on-my-knees listening to His Voice type. So the combination has created a rather lackluster theme around here.
For the longest time I have tried – and failed miserably – to do my daily devotions in the morning. As a mom, we all know this should be done when the children are still sleeping. My boys are busy bees first thing in the morning and create as much noise as possible to wake up the day (and the rest of the household)! If only I could awaken with that much energy!
So finally, a thought struggled it’s way through my foggy mind and I realized that I have been wasting away the quietest time of the day at my house … evening! I’m always up until 10:30pm or 11pm (or later 
), so why not make the effort in those great moments before I head to bed??? The 10:00 to 11:00 hour is the BEST and QUIETEST time around here.
This suddenly occurred to my crazy mind about 11:30 pm last night so I took a few moments to write a page in my journal while making a mental note to create a more purposeful time tonight. I am so hungry for the Word of God right now! Seriously!!! I adore the devotionals I am priveleged to read and publish for our amazing contributors at Faith Lifts and I definitely get a great lift when I take them to heart. But they, like Sunday Sermons only take me so far and I’m hungry again.
This month I’m going to focus on reading the word and journaling each evening at about 10:30 or 11:00pm. The idea that I may actually have stumbled upon something that with only a few exceptions might actually work on a VERY consistent basis is super exciting to me! The fact that I can potentially do this for 30 days and instill it as a “habit” is even more exciting. But just being able to rest in His presence during the quiet time of day here simply sounds Heavenly!
One thing that I struggle with a little bit as the mom of 6 busy boys is … I LOVE QUIET. I am an introvert, the person that is refreshed and filled up when things are quietest. So being in the hustle and bustle of boyness day in and day out without any quiet wears me down to nothing very quickly!!! I HATE running on empty! I’m sure you do too! There are people (extroverts) that are actually refreshed by being in a crowd, that idea is foreign to me as it drains everything I have!
The point I want to make is that here I am at 36 years old, with 6 children, been married for almost 15 years (anniversary is in a couple of weeks) and a revelation of change just came to me now! So often I think we get stuck in what we think is The way or the Right way to do things that we can’t see “outside the box”. That’s where I was.
If you’re struggling with getting that all-important one-on-one time with God each day, I seriously encourage you to sit down in a quiet moment (’cuz I know we don’t often get more than that little moment of quiet) and look objectively at your day. Remove the walls that are boxing you into thinking there is a certain time or way that you need to meet with God and simply search for that time that consistently appears in your schedule that you never considered using as your devotional time.
Let me know how it goes or if you have already discovered this time in your life!
Related posts:
- Oh the Moodiness Fall is here, with it are cooler, shorter days that...
- Quiet It’s quiet. At 4:30 in the afternoon, that would normally...
- Back In Focus As I anticipated the start of summer break, I counted...
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:55 am 1
Great idea! I totally relate to how you feel as an introvert. Combine that with 6 boys in a teeny tiny house… you definitely need your time with God!!!
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:30 am 2
Hope you find that the evening devotionals work better for you!!!
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:14 pm 3
I put my Bible in the nursery beside my breastfeeding chair. There\’s always at least one feeding of the day where I\’m sitting there with nothing to do but open my Bible . . .
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:26 pm 4
Totally agree with you as to the importance of our relationship with God as fuel for every other part of life. I’m also an introvert and do ‘quiet time’ in the day where my children go to their rooms and do their own time out stuff whilst I do mine.
I also like to include them in my daily doings though, so we’ll sit and sing religious songs together or read prayers/ about the life of Prophets and so on.
I have tapes and CD’s of teachings that I listen to whilst cooking and also say prayers at this time to bring ‘barakah’ (or blessedness I suppose you could say), into the food.
These are my aims anyway – when they happen its a good day .))
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 pm 5
I can relate to so much of that! I’m an introvert with (only 2) extroverted boys (and married 14 years today!).
I’ve known for a long time that late night is my best time of day. (Did you know they have actually isolated a night-owl gene? Wish I’d known that in high school when my parents were trying to make me go to sleep at 10 pm because THEY were tired!)
I struggled for a long time with the morning devotions idea too. I finally came to the conclusion that morning is just not a sweet, pure productive time for me. So, do what works! (And it’s 8 am somewhere, right?)
I hope your night time devotions will be very blessed (and I know you’ll have sweet dreams; what better way to go to sleep than having just spent time in His presence).
July 5th, 2008 at 9:16 am 6
Thank you so much for this post! You know in my relationship with the Lord, about the only thing I am consistent with is being inconsistent! I NEVER have quiet time. My toddler boys are stuck to me like glue! When I go to bed, they go to bed, when I wake up, they wake up. I have never been so disorganized and tired in my life! I can’t seem to accomplish ANYTHING. I’m so wore out. Thank you Jesus you are a merciful, loving, God!
July 6th, 2008 at 10:21 pm 7
You truly inspire, thank you for sharing this!
July 7th, 2008 at 1:18 pm 8
I found you through Becoming Me…great post! I relate on so many levels.
Six boys!!!! WOW! You are now my new hero
I have 3 boys, ages 7,5,and 3 and life is definitely crazy fun!
I’ll be back for sure!
July 7th, 2008 at 1:57 pm 9
I just said to myself today that I haven’t been praying my rosary daily as I most recently started out to do. I leave it on my kitchen counter to remind me. I always pray around 11, alone, in my living room because this is the time I am painting my Etsy orders and my son is asleep. I know exactly how you feel and I think evening is best for me too.