075: 10 Ways to Find God Time as a Busy Mom

Summary

Are you a busy mom that struggles to find God time in your days? Are you feeling like there’s space between you and God and like you haven’t heard from Him in a while? Do you struggle to get quiet? Is your prayer life feeling like it could be better? Do you remember the last time you opened Gods word for yourself?

In this episode Sasha shares (more than) 10 ways to find God time in your days as a busy mom. Be sure to have a note pad ready because you’re going to want to write some of these down, or better yet, implement them today

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Transcription

0:05
Hello sisters and welcome back to another episode of the Intentional Abundant Life podcast. I’m your host Sasha Star Robertson. And if you’ve not been around for a while, if you’re just catching this because of its incredibly punchy title of 10 Ways to Find God time as a Busy Mom, I want you to go back to last Monday’s episode and listen to the 5 Reasons Quiet Time With God is Essential to Everything Else You Could Possibly Be Doing. Okay, that is the foundation. We need to understand why and have reasons of why we want to seek this quiet time in this god time before we look at the action of 10 ways to actually do it. So go back and listen to that. Come back here. Let’s do this jingle and we’ll dive into these 10 plus some bonus ways.

1:02
Jingle

2:00
Okay, okay, let’s dive right in. Like I said, I’m super excited to get into this episode because when I first started my business, this is not what it was about. I love that as I was doing some market research, the number one thing that I kept hearing coming from moms is how to lead a life of faith, lead a life that allows their kids to have faith when they grow up, how to lead their kids to love and serve Jesus to know who Jesus is. And the big thing that God kept directing me to is that we have to do that by example.

2:45
We know, I mean at least I hope you know, that most of what your kids know and do is caught not taught. I have tried to teach my kid to do something hundreds of times. I have told him the same exact thing and he just doesn’t get it, but we could go to the playground one time and also he comes home doing some weird random thing that I had never… I’m like where did you even learn that? But also there are those really, really sweet moments where something happened to me the other day and I like stubbed my toe or I like whacked my arm into something. And my sweet little toddler said Yo tay Mommy and I was like Ow that hurt. And he said me kiss? He wanted to give me a kiss on my booboo because that is what he has caught about what happens when he gets hurt. I say Are you okay? But and then I kiss his boo boo. So he caught this just from my actions in my behaviors. It’s about living as an example.

3:54
I think Scripture really leads us to this conclusion too, is that to be disciples like we have to be disciplined we have to follow the leader and that is Jesus Christ and He lived by example. Therefore, we should be living by example. And so I want to get into these 10 ways to find God time in your days as a busy mom because that’s the number one way that our kids are going to know to love and serve and seek Jesus is by seeing us do it. But also just by us doing it by like living in integrity with that. And so, we’re gonna run through these hopefully fairly quickly, because there’s actually more than 10, giving you some bonus ones here.

4:42
But number one is… Don’t shoot the messenger on this one because this is the one people hate. Moms hate when I say this. And it is number one for a reason. Rise before your family. Set your alarm and get up early. Who wants to do that? Nobody in the flesh. Nobody wants to do that weirdos maybe, my husband is one of those weirdos. He like… the alarm goes off, Bam! You jump up out of the bed in the shower and I’m like, How are you even moving but rise before your family why? It’s quiet. You start your day off on the right foot being filled up with the presence of God. He gives you his gifts when you seek Him when you seek His presence and doing it first thing in the morning is giving Him your first fruits. Like that’s what he truly, truly wants from us is to be in a relationship with Him to seek Him, and to give Him the first fruits of our day. That is why tithing is done the way. It is the first fruits. It’s why the Feast of the First Fruits exists in Scripture.

6:00
And listen, I know that it’s hard. I know that it’s not easy to set an alarm and get up early in the morning, especially at first especially when you’re first starting this routine and this habit. It is not easy. And I know, of all people I know, the fact that I am able to get up at 4:30 in the morning, hours before my son gets up, is a miracle in and of itself. I do on and on and on about this but we don’t have time in today’s episode to do that. But if I can do it, sister, you can do it. You can do hard things. I have a lot of tips, a lot of experience, and a lot of lived wisdom to help in this area. But we’re gonna have to save those for another day. Or maybe if you want to come into a coaching relationship, we can dive into that. But for the sake of this, we’re moving on.

6:54
Number two, encourage your kids to have five minutes of self-play, alone time, and quiet time. And just read a verse of the day or pray in those five minutes. Again, starting out, and this is for the doubters, starting out it’s going to be difficult. Your kids aren’t used to it. They’re going to come back in 60 seconds. They’re going to come back in 90 seconds at first. Yes, it’s going to be difficult because nobody’s used to it. Starting anything new is difficult but it’s so good for your kids to learn to self-play, to learn what five minutes is, to learn to be quiet or to be alone. You’d be surprised though, at how easy this is after just a few weeks of consistency. Sometimes even a few days of consistency. Like our children are sponges; they are wired to be trained. This is why we potty train. This is why we wean them. This is why we teach them to walk and crawl and all these other things, right? This is what you are used to. You have a mountain of evidence to believe that this is possible for you to teach and train your child, and this is just another area that is going to be so good in bringing out so many fruits. So have faith, sister, I believe in you.

8:22
Number three, read scripture, or do a Bible study with your kids? Use a Children’s Bible one with photos, make it fun, and use funny voices or props. Then you’re spending time in a relationship with them. You’re giving them attention you’re reading the books, you’re helping to grow their faith. But also, you’re being reminded of this verse in Scripture, this story in Scripture, this passage this lesson in Scripture. And then you can even take that, encourage the, go back to number two, encourage them, “Okay, we’ve done our little Bible time today. We’ve done time, now I need you to go play for five minutes. And then you go read that story or that verse or that passage in scripture and pray over it. So rich, rich way to get in this time every single day.

9:09
Number four, listen to an audio Bible. The YouVersion app is amazing for this. You can pick your translation, you can push play, and it will read to you entire chapters. Do this while you’re fooling around, driving around running errands, or you’re washing dishes while you’re in the shower, etc. Try to focus on what you’re hearing, right? I know that sometimes when we’re multitasking we can easily allow our minds to wander or focus more heavily on one thing than the other thing. But honestly, if you’re really really struggling to get in Bible time, God time, this is a way that He can allow that even if you’re like passively listening like your brain is picking up and He might be able to take that from Head to Heart. So don’t discredit it, even if it’s not active listening.

10:12
Number five. Write scripture that you would like to memorize or meditate on your windows, your mirrors, your fridge, sticky notes, note cards, or something like that and place them around your home, making a point to read them when you see them. I have a friend who has a gorgeous mountain view at her house and on all windows every time I go over there there are different scripture verses written. She’s a mom of four she’s busy, but you know what she finds time to get quiet and God’s word every day. Her life is a rich account of it. But in addition to that, she’s got these on her mirrors.

10:48
I’ve been to missionaries’ homes that have little note cards with scripture on them taped to light switches. So anytime you enter a room and turn on a light, there’s that scripture verse going back to Deuteronomy 6, God even says, Write His commands on the doorposts of your home, right? Have them on your heart and on your forehead and where you go, and all these things, right? He has all these. How important is it to have scripture in your face and your heart everywhere you’re going and looking and being a living breathing example of that? So this is a really, really great way to do this. I have a magnet in the intentional living store where it’s the 10 commandments, and I have it right on my fridge. And so I try to make a point and I’ll move it around you know if sometimes I get way too used to seeing it right there. I’ll move it so it catches my attention again. And I’ll try to read at least one commandment every time I go to the fridge to open something which is frequent because I’m a snack lady. That’s like my primary life right now.

11:55
Number 6, take your kids to the park, to the playground, have them play outside, or set up something fun for them to do. You keep your Bible in hand. There have been times where I have like a coloring Bible. This is another great thing, wasn’t even in my notes to share with you today. This is another one mamas. But this number like bonus. I have a coloring book Bible a friend gave to me for my birthday and it’s just the Psalms. And so whenever my son wants to color or sometimes I’ll encourage him to color, I’ll get the crayons and colored pencils out and whatever. And I will give him a sheet of paper or coloring book or whatever can sit there and color with me while I’m sitting there reading that little passage of scripture, reading just a Psalm and then coloring the words that are outlined or drawing pictures, coloring pictures about what God is showing me as I’m reading this, right? Psalm 1 has this visual about a tree planted the river, and so I drew a picture of a tree last time I did this. So there’s your bonus. But it has to do with number 6 and in allowing your kids to do something fun while you just have your Bible handy. And you are able to open that up. And this is where the Bible app can come in really handy as well. It’s so you can carry your Bible right in your pocket everywhere you go. There’s no reason to not read scripture when you know that it’s right there.

12:18
Number seven, make a point to read a Bible story or a passage or a chapter or a verse or something before you go to sleep at night. Make it part of your bedtime routine. You brush your teeth, you wash your face, you get your pajamas on, you set your alarm, you lay in bed, you read a passage, and then you roll over and go to sleep. Pray and then go to sleep. Of course.

14:00
Eight make a habit to open your Bible or the Bible app every time you reach for social media. This is something that I did a couple of years back where I just committed to being aware in the present moment. And every time I went to click Facebook or I went to click Instagram or whatever other social media app you’re really fancy and fond of right now. Whenever you notice you’re clicking open Facebook, stop what you’re doing. Go open the Bible app and read a verse and then you can go to Facebook. That’s a way to plug in a lot of little snack size God time in the day. But try not to just like read it and then go back, right? Read it, every single word slowly. What does this mean? Give it at least a minute, at least five minutes of your time before you go through social media.

14:59
Number nine, start nap times or homeschooling times something like that, times of the day you already have this like trigger, where it’s like, Okay, we’re doing this now. Start it with scripture, a verse of the day, a passage, or whatever. So if you are putting your toddler down for a nap and whatever you normally do after you go put them down for a nap, make it a habbit, make it a point to, that is your trigger. You put them down for a nap you go read something in Scripture. Or you’re sitting down to do your homeschooling time for the day. Start your homeschooling time with your kids with a verse, read a verse to them. Okay, our verse of the day is this. Spend a couple minutes on it and then you can move on.

15:45
And then number 10, put on some Coco-Melon or Blippi or frozen or let your toddler play ABC Mouse or something. Do something that keeps them engaged and focused not on your demand for their attention and commit that time to Scripture and praying for 15 minutes. Listen, I know a lot of us as moms want to limit our kids’ screen time for the sake of so many good reasons. Right? So many benefits. But that doesn’t mean screen time is evil period. Right? Especially if we’re going to use that time to grow the fruits in our life and seek the presence of God. My son anytime, he constantly, “Show, Mom, show.” And he wants to watch Blippi or Coco-Melon or frozen or he says mouse, he wants to play his ABC Mouse game. And I want to limit that time but you know what sometimes it’s a really, really good thing for them to be able to learn something. like Coco-Melon is very engaging for that. You know, he learns from it. Blippi he learns from. ABC mouse he learns from. And giving him 15 minutes to do that while I can focus on God’s word or scripture, while I can focus on prayer and seeking His presence, that’s a good thing all the way around, Mama. Let it be.

17:11
And then I have another one. Number 11, Bonus read Scripture out loud while you’re feeding your baby, feeding your toddler, or rocking them to sleep. This is something for the really new mamas out there. Where you find yourself spending several hours a day. Feeding or rocking to sleep or cuddling or holding such a rich time in your life to spend time in Scripture and also worship music. This is another thing where I listen to so much worship music when my son was little because babies, it’s scientifically proven they need that noise, even if it’s like white noise that sound machine or whatever else like in the womb it’s really loud. I’ve heard it compared to an airplane. When you’re on an airplane you know at first you’re like wow, it’s just like constant noise and you’re hardly even able to hear the people in the row behind you talking sometimes because the sound of the engine is just so loud and the sound of traveling that fast through the air is so loud and that’s kind of like the decibel range of the womb. Your heartbeat, your blood flow, your walking, your voice that’s what they’re used to hearing. And so having worship music on, even at a slow decibel while you’re rocking them to sleep or whatever or even singing worship music. Us singing worship music to God is seeking His presence. Lord, I need you was like my go-to when I’m lacking sleep. I’m so tired. I’m running off fumes, maybe like he had colic for the first four months he was alive. It was terrible. For all of us. I don’t think we slept for four months. Lord, I need you was my motto. I can sing the song by heart. I sung it to my son almost every single day when we were putting him to sleep.

19:12
Okay, I have some other bonuses for you. Number 12 and 13, thee are more weekly instead of daily. But they’re ones that God really brought to me that I didn’t want to overlook. Number 12 is to attend or start a moms and Bibles group where your kiddos can be like you and other mamas fellowship together and read God’s Word. I’m so grateful a friend turned client of mine has this moms and Bibles group where we were just reading through Proverbs, and we hope to get through a whole Proverb, like a whole chapter on Proverbs, each week. Sometimes it’s a little more, sometimes we don’t make it all the way through. But we just read a section, discuss, and ask questions, What’s your translation say? Get a more rounded understanding. Talk about life examples. We get to talk about other stuff, our relationships, our friendships, our fears. We pray together. All the kids get to play together and yes, there are going to be distractions. There are going to be toddlers fighting over toys and kids crying and whatever else. That’s part of mom life, right? managing those distractions, but not avoiding going to those fellowships because you know there are going to be distractions. So, if you don’t know of one that you can join, if you weren’t invited to one, start one. Get out and build and grow in community and fellowship in addition to having that Bible time.

20:38
And Number 13 is very similar. Join or start a small group structure book or Bible study. And this can be something like you know, a written book that somebody wrote, reading a few chapters a week and then getting together and discussing it, especially if it’s you know, a Christian memoir or something like that. There are a lot of books that come along with a Bible study and a video study, there are tons of them out there. There are precepts that you can do. There are Bible studies that people just wrote on specific topics or whatever else. Or you can just like I was talking about pick a book of Scripture. There are even structured studies that lead you through a specific book of Scripture where you can just get together and discuss it, but having one of these that is a little more structured is sometimes helpful because it provides homework that you’re encouraged and almost held accountable to do each week while you’re not in the study itself.

21:49
And then schedule the time a few days a week and make it real and present in your life. We actually do lead one of these weekly Bible studies in Zoom each week in the Intentional Abundance Community on Facebook. Right now, we are getting ready to start a new one. So if you’re not already in the community jump in. Share what study would you like to do, and maybe vote for studies that other people have already suggested that we’re trying to decide between. Vote for a day and time that works best for you. If you don’t have one in your local church or local community, or even if you do and want to do another one, this is a really, really great way to do that.

22:40
I have a friend who goes to church every week and she leads a small group marriage study at her home. But still finding this time to be intentional, connecting with the Lord every day is something that she has struggled with. She needs the structure she needs to know every Thursday morning we’re meeting on Zoom to watch the video, to have discussions about what we’ve learned this week and she has the structure of knowing she has these 3 chapters of the book to read, she has these questions to go through and answer throughout the week as homework. And that keeps her intentionally plugged into Scripture and to Christ. And it leads her to fellowship every single week as well.

23:24
And ladies, I could come up with so many more reasons. So many more ways I mean that you can intentionally plug into that God time every single day even as a busy mom. But for the sake of time I’ve gotta leave it here today. But this is one of the things that I love love love doing with my clients is uncomplicating their faith and their Jesus time. I love learning about their specific days, their specific desires, and their specific demands on their life and finding, or shall I say, making a way to Yes. I’m a natural problem solver. And I don’t care what it is that is standing in your way of time with God. Whether it is those demands of your day, whether it is the schedule and structure of your day, or whether it is your mindset that is standing in the way. I’ve helped numerous clients go through and uncomplicate their faith, and love doing it in a very customized approach. So I invite you into a consult if that is something that you’re struggling with. Let’s talk about what it looks like in your life and find a way to Yes.

24:34
In addition to that, I am hosting a face workshop. It is completely free. The link is in the show notes. We are going to be talking about not just reasons why seeking God, His presence, His Word, prayer, and quiet time is so essential to living, but we’re going to be talking about real life, practical ways that we can go about doing this as busy moms. It’s going to be loaded with Scripture,.loaded with encouragement, loaded with real-life examples, and these reasons to seek Him It’s going to be powerful and it’s something I’m really, really passionate about and I feel like God has just consistently been reminding me of is that we can sometimes overcomplicate our faith, and our time with Him, and our relationship with Him when really it is so incredibly simple.

25:35
So click the link in the show notes. Jump in that workshop. It’s completely free. It will be recorded even if you can’t attend live although I strongly encourage you to make the time. Get a babysitter, ask hubby to take the kids, you know, do whatever you need to do to be present at the live workshop, there’ll be time for q&a. And when you attend something live, intentionally plugging into it, you learn and grow so much more than passively catching a replay, you know listening to it while you’re folding laundry or driving or whatever else. Not able to focus and take notes. Totally different outcomes and results happen. But I do want to encourage you, if you can’t attend live, do not allow that to be a reason why you’re not registering, why you’re not plugging into the information that’s going to be shared here to truly uncomplicate your faith. Alright, I will see you in a consult, I will see you at this workshop. I will see you in the Intentional Abundance Community and in between now and then sister have a blessed day.

More about your Podcast Host

Your Host,Sasha Star Robertson is an Intentional Living & Biblical Mindset Coach for busy Christian moms, wife of 14 years to her best friend, boy mom x2 (blessed by adoption), travel addict, and Jesus freak. She is the founder of The Intentional Abundance Co., curator of the Life & Goals Planner, host of the Intentional MomLife with Jesus Podcast & co-host of the Faithful Family Fortress Podcast. Sasha is passionate about the call in Isaiah 61:1-2 and believes that God called her to set mothers free from the stress, overwhelm, and burden associated with modern day motherhood and instead help them live in the freedom of Christ through Biblical mindset & balanced schedules.

Sasha invites listeners to come and chat about where they’re at, to be seen, heard, and what next steps to take to move forward through the stuck walking with Jesus and others in fellowship. Want to jump on a free discovery consult with Sasha to walk away with wins and learn about next steps towards Intentionally Abundant Motherhood, schedule your call here: https://calendly.com/intentionalabundanceco/iamconsult

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