Everywhere you look, strong Christian women hail and swear by the early alone morning time with God. There isn’t much advice on how to do devotionals when you have babies though. If you have a baby, or a few small children, you know how challenging it can be to do the most simple tasks, let alone get any quiet or alone time at all, especially if like many babies out there yours get up when you do.
The problem is that time with God is the lifeline that gives strength that helps you through those tough mama-of-littles years and thrive instead of merely survive.
In this post let me share with you the most brilliant hack I’ve discovered for how to do devotionals when you have babies and kick start your mamahood day-in-the-trenches with the Word of GOD!!
The Devotionals Dilemma For Mama’s With Babies
Before I share How To Do Devotionals When You Have Babies, let me share a little bit about my situation.
In my case all six of my babies have been the same. If I get up at 7 am they get up at 7 am. If I get up at 4 am they get up at 4 am. If I get up at 1 am they get up at 1 am.
It’s the weirdest thing because it’s not like I’m making noise, in fact I try to be so careful NOT to make noise!
I don’t know about you, but by the time I had my third baby I was beginning to feel the wear of not only this, but the little years. I started reaching out, but I was so alone and didn’t know many people because I was new to the area we were living in, plus I was reaching out in all the wrong places!
Do you ever do that? Look for advice in the wrong places?
I mean we think to ourselves that we want to be or do ___________fill in the blank_________. In this case it’s a strong Christian woman….so we look for strong christian women to follow, but we miss a few critical details. One of them being that we are all individuals with different circumstances.
The advice I kept hearing from well rested mama’s that were years parted from the baby phase was “You need alone, quiet time with God’s word” with emphasis on first thing in the day.
Eventually I had had it. Sleep deprived and starving for some spiritual food and real tangible advice on how to do these little years I wanted to scream, “How in the h*** am I supposed to do alone morning time devotionals when my babies wake the instant I do, which wakes their siblings, and then everyone is hounding me to make breakfast??????? Do these women not know what it’s like to have to hit the ground running for months on end? Have they forgotten that when you have a baby you can’t even PEE alone?????”
[FYI, pretty sure they had forgotten].
I have a feeling I’m not the only one that’s felt this way.
How To Do Devotionals When You Have Babies
I’ve learned that if I want to know how to do something and I can’t find the answers in the Bible, then I try to find someone with as many of the same circumstances as me and who’s done or is successfully doing what I want to do .
As a big family mama that’s been having babies approximately every 2.5 years apart for the past 14 years, let me share something I’ve discovered with those of you that are struggling and wondering how to do early morning alone time with God when you have babies.
You ready for it? Here it is…………………………
You’re not.
That’s right. I said you’re not.
Think of it this way, if God wanted you to have consistent alone time with Him then He wouldn’t have given you a helpless little people that depend on you for every.single.thing including how to stay alive, and that are always there.
Now I’m not saying alone time is bad and I’m not saying it’s entirely impossible-it’s not. Stick with me here to the end….
It’s important to get away and recharge-and I believe this is needed for anyone care taking children-it’s just that as you know we don’t always get to choose when that happens.
And I’m definitely not saying that quiet, alone morning time with God is bad and that you should never try for it. Quite the contrary! Quite morning time with God is a beautiful luxury!
But here’s the thing, if alone time with God was an absolutely necessity every morning then God would give mama’s of babies the opportunity for it. And there are some seasons where He just does not.
I’ve had 14 years where the majority of time He has not.
I know some people suggest just looking for opportunities during the day where you can have some quiet alone devotional time, but it’s been my experience that although this can be a very nice supplement, relying on this as core devotional time usually doesn’t work out very well.
Now don’t go all Negative Nelly on me and think there’s just no hope for mama’s and that we aren’t included by Jesus.
That’s what I did for awhile. It was bad. Can you believe that just made things worse?
Eventually I found the solution to this problem though. Best of all, it’s SO simple!
Before I share how to do devotionals when you have babies this let me share a verse with you. I love how the scripture’s always provide solutions to our problems when we look hard enough. And there is a most obvious solution to this particular dilemma for mama’s with babies and children.
Teach them [God’s word] to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Deut. 11:19
That verse makes it pretty clear doesn’t it! God didn’t intend for us parents to have ample alone time to refine ourselves.
I promised to share the hack I’ve discovered for how to get those devotions in during the intense parenting babies years. Here it is.
Take the “alone” part out of the “alone time with God”.
There it is.
Simple. Sweet. Effective. Biblical.
In the seasons where it doesn’t work out to have that quiet alone morning time with God, do those devotions anyways, only with the kids. Read the devotions aloud. Involve them.
In doing so you’ll find growth together and in the Lord as the months and years pass. You’ll be teaching by example-as well as creating little accountability partners (BTW-kids voluntarily become the best accountability partners you will EVER find-they notice and remember EVERYTHING).
And you know else what I found? Having children to share sweet devotion time with is also a beautiful luxury with results that don’t disappoint!
Instead of seeing those years with little’s as a desolate desert away from the presence of God, you’ll soon see that they are the opposite and can provide the most rich growth opportunity of your life.
In closing I would like to share something I saw once. Children have a way of coming into our lives and turning everything upside down. Have you ever noticed what happens when you turn the word ME upside down?
“Me” becomes, “WE”. Isn’t that beautiful?!
Recommendations…
Are you looking for a Bible with special devotionals that feed and empower a mama’s soul? I recommend the NIV Mom’s Devotioanal Bible. You can read aloud from it to the children and then find a little extra something encouraging just for you.
Looking for encouragement as you spend your days with little ones? Right now you can get Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic for FREE on Kindle! I read this book when I had four that were all young and I found it so fun and encouraging to read.
If you’ve enjoyed How To Do Devotionals When You Have Babies, you might also enjoy How to Break Bad Habits with Habit Training Bracelets,