(pt.4 Hearing the Word)

Ladies, I am presently caring for Mackenzie, my 14-month-old granddaughter. She is the cutest and the best 14-month-old granddaughter I have. She will be spending 24+ hours with us while her mommy and daddy take her sister for a medical test. She has been all pleasure, no trouble at all.

But I have been freshly reminded of what a lot of work childcare is!!!! The bending, the lifting, the clutter, the washing, the changing, the playing, the reading, all while getting the other household and family needs met. Thankfully at this stage I have reinforcements. Alina, Jonathan and David are eager to serve me when I need an extra set of hands.

As I sit to blog about rightly hearing the Word for mothers of young children, I want to be quick to say, I know how hard it is to juggle life with little ones. I know how tiring it is (I once had 4 under 6). I know how hard it is to get up early to read and pray, or to get out the door on a Sunday morning with a Bible, say nothing about being "fully" prepared for the Word.

Next week when we get together for our "Coffee Break" we'll be hearing helpful teaching from Diane Hunt on how to plan and prioritize our lives according to God's word. I hope you all can come. Because of that good teaching next week, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that in this blog.

All I want to do is give you a few suggestions for how I cultivate a listening heart in the midst of a busy life. These are only suggestions. Much of these have to do with life with young children but much of it still applies to my life today.

1. When my children were young I had to get up before them. This would be tricky because the kids had a sense for when I was awake. It seemed the earlier I got up the earlier they got up. I was tempted to give up. But then we came up with the music system. The kids were told they had to stay in bed until they heard the music. When my time with the Lord was finished I turned on some worship music and would soon hear the pitter patter of little feet hopping out of their beds.

2. I would get to bed at a reasonable hour. I loved staying up late but I always struggled to get up before the kids when I stayed up too late. This meant I had to give up my caffeine habit after 2 in the afternoon.

3. I played a lot of worship music in the house and in the car. This kept my heart and mind in tune to the Word of God.

4. I ordered my life to include lots of fellowship with other women with children my kids' ages. This kept me from feeling isolated. How did this help my devotional life? When I felt isolated, I tended to distance myself from God and His Word. And we encouraged each other to keep in the Word.

5. Saturday evenings were usually quieter evenings. Baths, preparation for Sunday, family time, and then the kids were off to bed. The rest of the evening was spent with quiet music and reading. I loved it. I love quietness.

6. Sunday morning was not usually stressful because we were mostly prepared Saturday night. But once we got to church I was pretty much on my own. With my husband being a pastor, it was largely up to me to keep both eyes on the kids. And, I usually sat alone (that was when Tim's pastoral role was more formal which meant he sat up front most of the service). This required us to prepare the kids ahead of time. We used to practice having the kids sit still for family reading times. We would even have mini worship times. This helped a lot (it also taught the kids how to sit quietly at the doctors office or in other public contexts). Was I distracted during worship? Of course. But my heart was inclined towards hearing and I believe God honored that and always fed me something from the Word despite the distractions.

7. As mentioned above in #6, the inclination of the heart is what God responds to. Ladies, may I encourage you to spend time in Psalm 119 for a few days? Any Psalm will do, but this Psalm specifically speaks of the relevance of God's word to our lives. Every verse (all 176 of them) refers to the Word of God.

Let me leave you with these verses:

Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments. Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
Psalm 119:129-133