Grace for When It Feels Impossible to Get to Bible Study {Part 1}

Are you in a season of life where you’re craving connection and longing to plug into Bible study, yet it feels simply impossible? Maybe it’s your toddler’s crankiest hour, exactly at the moment you have to hustle out the door? Or your littlest babe needs to nap right in the middle of Tuesday morning study?

Maybe on a perfect day, everyone is up right on time, breakfast goes down the hatch with ease, milk stays in the sippy cup instead of spilling all over the floor, and as a perk, everyone has on matching socks with shoes that can actually be found.

Alas, perfect days are few and far between. 

Normal looks like misplacing your keys and running out the door right when study is about to start. The thought of showing up late, without your homework done makes you want to skip the whole thing altogether and go to Target to spend away your sorrow instead. Yep, guilty. I've done that!

Oh mama, I’ve been in your shoes and I haven’t forgotten the struggle, even though my kiddos are long out of diapers. So would you mind if I put on my older mama hat and offer the grace I wish someone would have given me years ago?

Let's start with this truth: You are precious, dear mama! 

Yes, you! Even if you feel like your life is a mess and you can’t get to any place on time, it does not in the least bit reflect on your value or worth. As a daughter of the Most High God, you, my sister, are valued. Please, please, no matter what, do not let a Bible study commitment or lack there of impact what you believe about yourself a Christian. 

God couldn’t love you any more or any less than He does today, with or without a Bible study on your calendar.

Could this be the season for you to sit the bench?

Dare I say it, but maybe this is the time in your life to let go of the pressure of showing up to Bible study with all your homework done. Maybe it’s time for you to adjust your expectations and let go of holding onto the way things were.

When my twins were born, I was forced to accept a new normal, which meant not going to Bible study for a whole year. How I cried the first month, missing the companionship of my friends and the routine of getting out of the house. But oh my, I look back and realize that was the most precious time handed to me by God. I read the books I wanted to read and studied the Scriptures God was leading me to. I invited women to come to my home and savored every conversation together. I ran around less, hollered less, and lingered longer in prayer. Actually, that was the year I began blogging, and when God unleashed in me a desire to write for Him. 

Sometimes we have to sit the bench in order to regain our strength before entering a new season of growth.

Yes, the struggle is real!

It is no easy feat to get out the door to make it to Bible study. It’s not your fault, sister, if you're failing miserably. The fact is that it’s impossible to make little ones conform to the rhythms and routines of our adult life, even with the best mothering techniques applied. Your kiddos are little human beings, not little programable robots. Your son will wake up cranky instead of happy. Your daughter want OJ instead of milk. His t-shirt will be itchy and he’ll want to change when it’s time to head out the door. She’ll be mad her sister took her toy. 

It’s okay to not have it all together, because the ones you’re leading are in progress as much as you are.

There’s more I want to share with you, but I know your time is short, so I pray these three points will carry you with grace and truth until next month. I’m cheering for you and praying, too.  Don’t give up, sister — the reward of your mothering investment is coming along with a time when getting to Bible study is only waylaid by your own distractions.

For You, and For Him,

Elisa Pulliam

moretobe.com & kaleoagency.net

P.S. If you're stuck at home and craving a Bible study that will draw you into a fresh encounter with God, this may be a good option.