Do you find spending time with God difficult as a mom with young kids? Like, "quiet time" sounds great, but quiet doesn't exist here! Well, maybe we have it all wrong. Here is how you can meet with God no matter what your circumstances...

Snuggled in my favorite chair in the early morning hours, before anyone else wakes, with a hot cup of coffee and my Bible. This sounds like the perfect quiet time, but more often than not it isn’t my reality.

In reality, my quiet times are not so quiet. My not-so-quiet times are filled with children cuddled close or playing nearby. There are often interruptions for assistance or to break up a sibling squabble. My not-so-quiet times also don’t always happen in the early hours, sometimes they happen in the afternoon or evening or if I’m being honest, in the middle of the night when I just can’t sleep. And you know what? That is okay because, over the years of motherhood, I have discovered two things:

Perfect does not exist outside of Jesus Christ and quiet doesn’t last long.

We have fallen into the trap of thinking you have to have just the right atmosphere to meet with Jesus, but that is a lie of the enemy. Any atmosphere is the right setting to meet with Jesus because it is He who brings the perfection, not our atmosphere. It is nice to have a quiet spot, a hot coffee, and beautiful Bible study materials but, it isn’t necessary. Jesus meets us where we are, wherever that may be. He meets with us in our quiet, noisy, still, busy, perfect, messy, peaceful, or chaotic. He desires to meet with us wherever we are. Let that sink in.

He desires to meet with us. It’s that simple. It is us that has made it overly complicated.

Quiet time doesn’t literally have to be quiet. As moms, our lives are rarely quiet. There is often very little we can do about the noise level of our surroundings, but we can quiet our minds and hearts. We can prepare to meet with Jesus by quieting the distractions within ourselves. Our children are not our number one distraction. It is true that, if they are present during our quiet time, they will not be quiet. Our children may need help with something or may even have a question, but it is not our children who draw us away from God’s Word. It is us. We are the ones who allow our minds to wander, get distracted, or make excuses of why we can’t make time to meet with God.

If we drop all the excuses of why we don’t meet with God, it will come down to one simple reason: we haven’t made it a priority. We need to make our relationship with God a priority. Our children need to see us make our relationship with God a priority. Our children need to see us go to Jesus no matter the setting or the time. They need to see that He is there, ready for us to sit at His feet, no matter what. The dishes can wait, the meal planning can be set aside, the big work project will get done, the to-do list can be put off, but our relationship with God can not wait.

If the lack of quiet is keeping you from having time with God, then I encourage you to embrace the not-so-quiet time. Let Him meet you in your messy, noisy life because the only way we are going to grow closer to God is to meet with Him where we are.

We cannot abide in Him if He is constantly being pushed to the bottom of our to-do list or to tomorrow’s agenda. Our quiet times may not look perfect, but our God who meets us in the not-so-quiet is.

Blessings,

Laura Dedmon