Finding Time With God

Several years back, I read a book by Elizabeth George called Beautiful in God's Eyes: The Treasures of the Proverbs 31 woman. In it, one of the things that she talked about was the beauty of early rising, and using that time to be with God.

Well, me being the ambitious kind of woman that I am, immediately set out to do so myself. I only had one problem. No matter how early I got up, the kids were up within 15 minutes. Pretty soon I was resentful of their intrusion on "my time" with God. And I felt like I was missing that great start that would set my day off right.

I keep reading on the Like A Warm Cup Of Coffee blog about their 5:16 club and thinking how much I would love to do that. But in my house the only thing that would happen is that I'd lose more sleep. And seriously, sleep is a highly valued commodity. That and good Scottish Breakfast tea. And maybe the coffee maker in my bathroom....

Anywho, last night I'm reading this book, Passionate Housewives Desperate for God. And I had a light bulb moment. Stacy McDonald wrote about something called "Prayer droplets". She said that I'm not alone. That God understands that my kids get up and will interrupt prayer time, and that running a busy house means that it's hard to get that break to spend with God all at once. She says that you can do it all throughout your day. Read the bible while the kids eat, pray with them, or in those minutes that you can steal here and there. She says that holiness isn't just found in that one-on-one time, but also in the things we do all day to serve our families. I can serve God while I change a diaper! And considering Quinn's nasty diaper rash, that might be a good time to pray, too.

I often felt guilty, like I was missing something by not being able to find that stretch of uninterrupted time with God. But I found a lot more peace in being able to connect with Him all throughout my day. And you know, with two ASD kids, two girls who are trying to win some sort of drama queen contest, and a 17 month old who wants nothing more than to glue himself to my leg, I need that frequent connection. It helps keep me sane. Really, sanity is good.

And, just to be clear, the author isn't putting down time with God. In fact, she says there will be a time in your life when that quiet time is easier to come by. But right now, for me, it isn't that time. She's saying that there are other ways of getting that time with God besides just a quiet time. By October I will have 4 kids under the age of 5. There is rarely any time that's quiet in my house. Seriously, if there's quiet, someone is probably in trouble.

So, today I did things differently. I prayed with the girls during school. We read the bible together as we learned about how God knows all things. I prayed when I found time, and I talked to God in the quite moments I had. Tonight I read my bible while sitting next to the crib trying to get Quinn to go to sleep.

He still hasn't gone to sleep, by the way. Maybe that's something for me to pray about...