Making Time for God as a Busy Mom

Twice this week I was asked how I make time for God as a busy mom. I can tell there is a lot of underlying guilt and condemnation in this area. So I made this video to share some honest truths on this topic. Enjoy! 

Read Today's Message

I really want to have an unscripted conversation with the mone today, because not once but twice within the past week two women asked me about my devotional time with God and how I spend time with God as a busy mom. The heart behind what they were asking me was, "I just don't feel like I'm doing enough. I don't feel like I have enough to give." Just a lot of guilt and condemnation around if they're spending enough time with God.

So I want to speak into that area today, because I think there are probably a lot of moms out there who struggle with this:

"I need to have this quality time with God, but I'm not really seeing it in my schedule. I have a heart to do it, but it's just not happening."

Because kids get sick, husbands work nights, deadlines are due, bills need to be paid, people need to be fed…all kinds of stuff we have to do that dictates our schedule.

So here are three quick reminders for the busy mom who is feeling guilty about if she's spending enough time with God.

First, I want you to know God understands your situation. I want to set some of y'all free today. I think a lot of people ask me about my time with God and how I study the Bible (that's probably one of the most popular questions I get) because I do that for my ministry Beloved Women. We do a lot of Bible studies, and I do have to be in my Word a lot. But when it comes to my personal time with the Lord, I honestly, in this season I'm in right now, do not have any kind of structure at all. I get it in where I can fit it in.

It's not like I get up every morning at 4:30 a.m. and am on my knees and praying and calling out to the Lord. Maybe one day I'll be at that point, but not today.

Guess what?

God understands that, and he is not mad about that. There are weeks, like this week where I had a few days that went by where I just didn't do any kind of devotion, because both the kids got sick this week. I got a little bit sick this week. It was crazy. I had a lot of deadlines due, and it was just one of those weeks.

God was with me, and he empowered me to do it, and he understands. We can't compartmentalize our relationship with God and feel like the only time God is pleased with me is when I'm reading my Bible or when I'm at church. God is pleased with you when you are doing what he called you to do, and sometimes that looks like changing diapers and cleaning up throw-up and going to get the car serviced and the oil changed and listening to your husband vent about the issues he had at his job or calling a friend and checking up on her. It doesn't always look like I'm in my Bible for three hours every morning.

When it comes to my relationship with God and my devotional time with him, it has changed over the years. When I was in college, I did have a structure. I did have a schedule, and I was pretty good at keeping up with it, but that's only because I didn't have classes until lunchtime.

It really depends on what your schedule is like. If you are a mom like me and you're working and you're married anext have many obligations lIke serving in your church and everything else that you're doing know this: God understands. It's going to be okay.

The second tip I want to give you is to figure out what your devotional time with God is going to look like. It's not necessarily always going to be a whole hour-long prayer every morning. Maybe it's listening to some worship music. Maybe it's journaling. Maybe it's reading a Scripture and writing your thoughts about it. There are so many ways you can connect with God and hear from him. I don't want you to feel like you have to be pigeonholed into just one particular way that you do it.

Right now, I just do a little bit of everything. I know I'm going to take a certain amount of time and spend with the Lord, and I just do whatever the Holy Spirit leads me to do. That can look like a lot of different things and whatever my heart needs at that time. If I'm really, really super exhausted and I can't even read the Bible and try to get something from it and think and process all that, I'll listen to a podcast, and I'll let somebody do the thinking and ministering for me. Guess what? That's okay, because God still uses those times to speak to me personally.

Sometimes I'll get the Bible, and I'll let the Holy Spirit lead me to what he wants me to study, and God will speak to me that way too. Sometimes I'll just put a worship song on, and I'll just pray and praise, and the Lord will speak to me that way. So just be sure you're open to being led by the Holy Spirit to whatever way God wants to speak to you.

I mean, the Lord has spoken to me while I was washing dishes. I think we have to realize we can open our lives up so that God can enter every single area and speak to us wherever we are, even if we are in the playroom. God is here to meet you where you are. That's what I love about Jesus. He came to us.

It's not about us trying to work and strive up to meeting God's standard. He already came to us. Jesus met the standard for us, and we don't have to worry about if we're enough for God. He already decided that you are worthy and that he loves you and that you are his daughter, so please do not feel guilty. He does not want you going around feeling guilty and condemned.

Now the last thing I do want to say is this. We don't have to feel guilty thinking we need to always be on this strict schedule or pressure ourselves into thinking our devotion time need to look a certain way all the time.

But I do want to encourage you to make some time for God. Whatever that looks like to you, however that fits in your schedule, you do need the time.

I hope that at this point you feel free enough to do that. What I mean is not looking at your devotional time with God, the time you spend with God to hear from him and talk to him and just be with him, as an obligation.

I don't want you to feel like, "Oh, I have to do this, because if I don't, God is not going to love me."

Heres the thing: you don't have to do devotions. You don't have to spend time with God. He's still going to love you.

Even when we're faithless, the Bible tells us that God is still going to be faithful. He's still going to faithfully love you. He's going to take care of you. He's going to fulfill His promise to you regardless if you do your devotions or not, but you want to do your devotions, because they are for you. It's not for God. God is not going to be less powerful if we don't spend time praying to him today. We will be less powerful if we do not spend time praying to him today.

Sometimes this means you would rather watch netflix after putting the kids to bed, but you take 15 minutes instead to pray and really hear from the Lord.

As women, as moms, we are spending our lives pouring out to everybody else around us, and we need to make sure we make time for God to pour back into us so we can wake up the next day and do it all over again.

It's good to rest and be with your girlfriends and do the stuff you want to do, but there is nothing that's going to fill you up like God can. So I want us to look at our devotion time with God, our time we spend with God, as completely, utterly valuable, as a necessity. If I spend time with God or not is the difference between if I am going to be angry mama all day today or if I'm going to be a peaceful, calm mommy today.

My family needs me to spend time with God. My husband needs me to spend time with God. I need to spend time with God. It is going to add value to your life. So I want you to be free and know that we don't have to feel condemned and guilty in this area, but spending time with God is a gift to us. It is a precious gift, and I hope that encourages all my mamas out there today.

Now I want to hear from you. Please comment and let all of us know one of the ways you like to spend with God in this particular season in your life. Hopefully it will encourage someone else who might be struggling in this area. I can't wait to chat with you in the comments.

If you enjoyed today’s message be sure to share it with a friend because you never know who might need some Beloved encouragement today. I post new encouragement every week so be sure join Beloved to have my weekly devotion “Hello Beloved!” delivered directly to your inbox. As always, thank you so much for reading and until next time be beautiful, be blessed and beloved.