A sweet girl whom I converse with sporadically wrote to me a while back through my blog. She recently stated that she has been seeking to make time with the Lord an utmost priority and makes sure to spend time with Him daily, even if it's just ten minutes.
While I do understand this and commend her for her willingness to even acknowledge the Lord, it made me realize how much is bound up in the amount of time we spend with the Lord daily; whether that be acknowledging Him in all our ways and choosing Him in any way we can...or simply being content with the average at-least-ten-minutes-a-day with God that so many of us too often resort to.
I know how easy it is to get distracted by life's many tasks and responsibilities and how with attending school, working full-time, having kids, being married or recently dating someone, taking care of the home, time spent with friends, TV and hobbies, cooking food, exercise, and the host of other activities that cause us to lead busy lives can be a great hindrance in spending time with the Lord, simply because we really feel that we do not have the time. And most of us don't have a lot of time. We have so many people and chores pulling at us from all directions and find it difficult to say 'No' to everything that is asked of us.
May I humbly yet boldly proclaim a paraphrase of what a dear friend of mine has said before, "If we are too busy to really seek after the Lord each day, then we are busier than God ever intended us to be. If we aren't giving Him His proper place in everything, then we are caught up in activities we could do without."
What's interesting about each 24 hour day we are given is that we all need time to eat and sleep in order to function properly (yet even so, we are often too busy to even give these necessities their proper place!) and we all have God-given responsibilities that are good in and of themselves (like being a mom or dad, serving God at church, taking care of aging parents, pursuing a degree in college so you can obtain a higher paying job, etc.) The problem arises when we seek to "keep up with the Joneses'" and commit our kids to several team activities, take on the role of team mom or room mom, make plans to meet up with different friends we haven't seen in a while for dinner twice that week, baby-sit the neighbor's kids...and soon we find ourselves in a whirlwind and exclaim, "I can't take it! I have no time! Sorry Lord, it's been a while..." Not to mention family Bible study suffers and quality time with our kids or spouse has diminished much.
Here are a few questions to ponder:
- Would any relationship, whether that be a marriage, family relationship or time with friends, thrive if all you spent together was ten minutes each day?
- How would that benefit the relationship?
- How would it cause it to grow?
- What blessings and special times would you enjoy together?
- How much would you get to know each other in that time?
It's pretty amazing how we don't treat our face to face conversations & relationships like this and yet are willing to skip out on the most important (and worthwhile) relationship anyone could have - knowing Almighty God.
Questions are very helpful and enable us to think. I love asking and answering questions! If you can think of a list of questions that would benefit others and cause them to grow through pondering such, feel free to send them to me and I will see about posting them on my blog! You may write at: EmmaJoyBlog@gmail.com
I know it totally seems like I am acting in a prideful, self-righteous, condescending manner and as if I am accusing you all of not caring about God and really pursuing a close relationship with Him, yet that isn't my point. I know how easy it is to attend to every other person and situation in life and then use the excuse, "I'm lazy" or "I'm tired" pertaining to getting to know God. So I am simply speaking from one soldier in Christ to another, wanting what is best for you in life (as I do with all people)...that is, knowing God and His word well.
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