Do you desire to read the Bible more, but struggle to find the time in the midst of homemaking, motherhood, and all life’s demands?
I’ve been in there before, with the best of intentions, desiring to be in the Word, yet somehow finding myself at the end of my day without having spent any quality time in the Bible. It’s those days that the weight of the day seems to take it’s toll on me, wearing me down, discouraging me from really engaging my family and giving them my best.
Maybe you are there now, or you go in and out of experiencing the daily connection with God through His word?
With seven children, I know just how busy life can get, trust me. I have to guard my time with the Lord, or by default, it will get consumed by other’s schedules and needs.
Regardless of how busy you are, finding time for God and reading His Word are essential to fulfilling any of our greatest intentions as a wife, mom, and woman of God.
In this post, I am going to share practical tips and creative ideas for carving out time in your everyday schedule to get into God’s Word.
It is equally important that you have alone time with God in His Word as well as spend time in His word regularly where your kids can witness it.
Our children will imitate each of us more than we realize and we need to model for our kids being able to raise a family while still being in the Bible daily. If we can’t model that, chances are they will not practice it when they are moms and dads.
Yes, I am sharing this post with the intention of helping you find the time to connect with God in His Word daily for your encouragement and spiritual growth, but as you read through these suggestions, envision your children participating with you, witnessing your walk with God, and then continuing the spiritual discipline of daily Bible reading when they are a mom or dad.
Let’s Pray Together First
Father, We are grateful for your Word and desire to spend more time with You every day. We want to know You more. We want to be parenting Biblically and need your guidance in our daily life! We want to be living in obedience to Your Word, but we can’t unless we know what Your word says! Help us to implement some of these ideas and experience more of Your presence in our lives as we invest time in the Bible. We want to be parents, wives, and woman who bring You glory and we know that by spending more time reading the Bible will help us to become more like You.
Four Easy Ideas You Can Implement to Help You Read the Bible Daily
1. Position Your Bible in a Location Where You Spend Most of Your Time
Leave a Bible open in a location where you spend a lot of time and snack on it throughout the day.
An older mom once told me that she leaves her Bible open in the kitchen because she finds herself in there at least 3-6 times a day preparing meals and cleaning up/managing clean-up. As I thought more about this idea of snacking on the Word of God throughout the day, I was encouraged by these verses about how Jesus’s words are the Bread of Life: John 6:35-51; John 4:14-15; Isaiah 55:1.
2. Create a Bible Study Tool Kit
Making your personalized Bible Study Kit can be such a fun and motivating way to be on purpose and be snacking on God’s Word THROUGHOUT your daily life!
Get a cute basket, bag, or box and keep your Bible, a journal, pens or colored pencil, post-it notes, bookmark, and maybe a little sweet snack in it. Move your kit from location to location throughout the day so you can snack on God’s Word.
Construction workers have their choice tools, chefs have their favorite knives and kitchen tools, and teachers have their resources. If we are to be students of God’s Word, His Disciples, then we need to take that seriously and be equipped with tools that will help us to truly engage with the Bible. It is our textbook for life and applies to every aspect of what we do as wives, moms, homemakers, and women in this world.
Here are some recommendations of where to locate your basket throughout the day:
- Kitchen
- Beside your computer
- In Child’s Bedroom (nursing baby time)
- Your Bedside Table
- Your Car Console
**It is also great to have it in a basket so that when you forget to move it, you can ask a child to go grab it for you. That way they see you modeling getting the Word throughout your day!
**Make a Bible basket for each of your kids too!
3. Creating a Bible Time in Daily
Plan a time during the day, that you call Bible Time. This is something you can begin when your kiddos are little and continue through all the years they live with you because it works for multi-age parenting and discipleship as well!
Create a specified time starting at 15-30 minutes and build up to an hour or more each day. This should be a special time every day when you and your kids are reading the Bible.
It can be together or individual study time. You can even mix it up through the week and have 3 days be reading together and 4 days on your own. Make this a sacred, protected time (meaning, don’t miss this time)–as the daily ritual of eating lunch.
Remember it is important that your kids do see you in the Word. They imitate us more than we realize. Seeing you be faithful daily in reading your Bible will be one of the most impactful things they witness you do. Model for your kids getting in the word.
This is a good time to add in a fun children’s devotional or even a Sunday School curriculum for a short season. It’s also a good opportunity for sitting at the table together with your Bibles and helping your kids navigate through the Bible and figure out how to look things up.
4. Create a Quiet Alone Time Routine Daily
Quiet time is an essential for moms in any season of life. Without this everyday opportunity to be still, pray, refocus my heart and mind on God, I would be a wreck, and I’m sure many of you would be too. This is also an important spiritual discipline to model for our kids as well as help them practice.
For little ones, we have loved the Word & Song Bible. It comes with CD’s which helps non-readers and beginning readers be able to “read the Bible” on their own.
Extra Practical Tips for Finding Ways to Read the Bible Daily
- Listen to the Bible in Audio throughout the day.
- Spend time reading the Bible aloud to your children every day.
- Have your child read to you during the day. A good time is while you are making lunch.
- Read while nursing the baby.
- Download MP3 of Bible onto a mobile device and listen while driving kids to and from activities, doing errands, grocery shopping, or working out.
- Choose to read the Bible instead of getting on the computer. Be social with God first, then you can give more to others.
- Ask your husband to help you find time either weekly, bi-weekly, or whatever works best for your family so that you can go on a date with Jesus and study His Word, or simply have alone time in the Word in your bedroom for 20 minutes every day!
- Get up earlier, or go to bed later than your kids and dedicate that time to God.
How I Read the Book of Colossians in One Day
Sometimes you just need a real picture of what reading the Bible can really look like, so I thought I would share a practical example of how my day looked a few days ago.
- Arise at 6-6:15 AM: Read Colossians Chapter 1 with commentary
- 10:30-10:50 AM: Read Chapter 2 During Baby’s Morning Naptime/Quiet Time
- 12:30-12:45 pm: Listened to Chapter 3 via http://biblestudytools.com while making lunch & Prayed with the kids inspired by what I listened to.
- 9-9:20 PM: Read Chapter 4 in my bathroom before getting ready for bed while my husband made sure the older kids were getting ready too. I also got ready in that amount of time.
If I can do it, you can do it too!
Do you have more ideas? Leave them in the comments! I would love to share your ideas with others as well!
