God invites us daily to talk to Him, to hear His voice through liturgy and Scripture...but how in the world am I to find the time in the middle of laundry, cooking meals, feeding kids, homeschooling, running kids to soccer or music lessons, keeping the house just clean enough so that you can honestly say you have dusted in the last month....does God REALLY think I have an extra even 10 minutes to come to Him??
I have really been struggling with this lately, wanting to fit Daily Prayer in our homeschooling day. How should Daily Prayer look? Should it take place in church or can it happen in our living room? Do we need to be dressed in something other than our PJ's with our hair just so and teeth brushed? Is it really worth it if we are so rushed to get out the door that we are at each other’s last nerve as we arrive at the door? Please ladies, share your thoughts with me?
Friday, March 18, 2011
Sruggling with Daily Prayer
Kathy F. writes:
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For me, daily prayer happens in my home. My personal prayer time comes while Jerome and Joanna are having Bible time and then violin practice. The rest of my day seems to be "claimed" by other activities.
ReplyDeleteWe're working on getting more consistent at this, but I've found the best time is right after we get up, which means we're all in our PJs, sitting at the table eating breakfast. When we do this, the rest of the day can be not so great and I go to sleep thinking we've accomplished something worthy (that is, hearing God's Word and going to Him, however briefly, in prayer).
ReplyDeleteWhen our four kids were being homeschooled, we found that after the noon meal worked well for us. We were all together at the dinner table, relaxed and focused. Mark and I invested in getting all of us our own small LSB with names inscripted on the front. We’d follow Daily Prayer (Noon) pg. 296. Mark would read a devotion from either Higher Things Reflection or To Live with Christ by Bo Giertz (we’re on the one year lectionary). We’d limit our time to 10 min. We struggle with having time for this now. With our older two in public school and involved with after school activities, it seems like meal times together are hard to come by. I miss this terribly! Mark and I are working towards a solution and in the meantime, I value my quiet devotion time before going to bed.
ReplyDeleteI love what you said Emily, that at least if you've prayed and heard the word you know you've accomplished something worthy for the day. What a comfort!
ReplyDeleteThis quote from Luther (found in A Simple Way To Pray given by Pastor Irmer) slapped me in the face when I read it! "It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business of the morning and the last at night. Guard yourself carefully against those false, deluding ideas which tell you, "Wait a little while. I will pray in an hour; first I must attend to this or that." Such thoughts get you away from prayer into other affairs which so hold your attention and involve you that nothing comes of prayer for that day." How many days go by where I have made those excuses and not prayed at all?
To pray daily is a discipline and not always easy. I think it "looks" different for us all and that's okay.
And does God want those little prayers thrown up to heaven throughout the day or would He rather 10-30 minutes of total concentration? At this stage of life I seem to be more of a "little prayers thrown up to heaven" kind of prayer. I sometimes feel guilty about this but I was very encouraged to read this post from a mother of 6 on her blog, about being "creative" in prayer and finding times throughout our busy day.
http://evlogiaonline.com/2010/01/18/the-treasure-hunt/
I think these small occasions to pray throughout the day are worthy and good practice. Instead of beating myself up for not making one long time to pray I could find many times to pray throughout the day.
We are also beginning to teach our children how to pray which is always a good reminder to me that I need to be praying if I want them to do it. May the Lord help us all to be diligent in daily prayer, whatever form it takes!
Amen, Aubri--"whatever form it takes"!
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