A Legitimate Bible Study for Women with Small Children
When you have small children, it is such a challenge to find quiet moments to be with God. This is a legitimate Bible study in this season.
She stopped by to loan me a backpack and I immediately felt a remembering empathy with her, as she unloaded the 3-year-old from one car seat and then walked around the car to retrieve the 1-year-old.
So much work just to take kids out of a car.
“We’ve all had colds this week and just needed to get out of the house,” she said.
I invited her in, and we took a few minutes for the little girls to admire the moose mount on the wall. (This is Montana, folks.) I taught them the sound a moose makes, confessing that I only knew this from watching Princess Diaries 47 times.
I got the girls set up on the floor to play with a tin full of dominoes. Then we big girls settled into chairs for a nice chat.
Except, 3 and 1 years old? If I had had a stopwatch, I wonder what the average distance between interruptions would have been. First, telling the oldest to be careful with the clock she had discovered on the end table. Then pausing to have a conversation in her domino “phone.” Then checking on the little, who had crawled so fast up the stairs and was into the closet where we keep the cleaning supplies on the floor.
Phew. Busy, busy days.
Our staccato conversation turned to spending time with God, and how in the world can a mom with little kids get even a few minutes to do anything but chase and clean and feed and comfort and love?
I told her I remembered those days when my kids were about the same age and Jayme once yelled, “Moooom! Caleb’s pouring syrup on the floor!” In that season, I used to open up my Bible study book on the counter and swing in throughout the day to try to answer one question in the 90-second windows. There were no long, luxurious moments with the Lord when my kids were little, and my soul was sucking air more often than not.
Now I’m an old momma, with kids out of the house, and I’m going to give you an idea wrapped up in a bow of reassurance. You’ll listen to me, won’t you?
THE IDEA:
In the hectic, full days of raising little ones, how about writing one Bible verse on a notecard and placing it over your sink –maybe a sentence out of the Psalms or a quote from Jesus out of the gospels? This is going to be your Bible study for the day. Every time you go to the sink, to rinse off a high-chair tray or to fill a sippy cup, read that verse and think about it.
To make it a deep Bible study, try asking a different question every time you read it. Questions like, WHO is speaking in this verse and TO WHOM is he speaking? or WHAT is the instruction or truth? or WHEN? WHERE? WHY? HOW?
Roll the verse around in your mind while you’re wrangling that kid into clothes or after saying, “No, no” for the hundred kajillionth time. Think on the verse while you’re cutting up apples for lunch and again while you and the kids are walking to the mailbox.
This is Bible study. Even now that my kids are grown and I have simply hours to drink coffee and read the Bible every day, I still think this simple meditation on one verse is a deep, life-changing way to absorb Scripture and to spend time with God.
Thinking on one verse for the day counts, so relax and enjoy God’s word in this simple way.
You’re doing good work, Mom.
Much love from Montana,
100 Words of Affirmation Your Son/Daughter Needs to Hear
Matt and Lisa Jacobson want you to discover the powerful ways you can build your children up in love with the beautiful words you choose to say every day–words that every son and daughter needs to hear.
These affirmation books offer you one hundred phrases to say to your son or daughter – along with short, personal stories and examples – that deeply encourage, affirm, and inspire.
So start speaking a kind and beautiful word into their lives daily and watch your children–and your relationship with them–transform before your eyes.
