A Prayer Life for a Busy Mom
If you can believe it, my almost 3 year old daughter throws tantrums. All the time. It seems she holds the same big emotions in her heart that her mama does, bless her heart.
The other day, we were working through a monster of a tantrum and I could feel myself on the verge of losing control. So I looked at Selah and said, “Sweetheart, we need to pray. Now.” I said a simple prayer along the lines of “God, thank you for this day and thank you for this opportunity for both of us to grow. Help mama reflect you. Give us both patience and kindness. Please help Selah to practice being obedience. Amen.”
My daughter looked at me afterwards and immediately said, “So is it time for bed now?”
I laughed because it was only 9:00am and I didn’t understand why her train of thought had led her there. And then it clicked.
Over the past 6 months or so, my husband and I have become intentional with a daily, very simple family worship time. We usually read a short story from one of her toddler Bibles, sing a chorus of a hymn together and pray. Then it’s bedtime! This time together has been so sweet and I can’t wait to see it grow as our children get older.
But as we’ve begun to introduce Selah to this amazing God we love, it seems we’ve mistakenly confined him to one part of the day. Or at the very least, we’ve limited the time we talk to him in prayer.
In her mind, we pray before bedtime. And that’s it! And while I love a good routine and while Selah thrives off of routine, I’m so glad this moment happened, because it’s opened my eyes to a glaring mistake in our teaching process.
Prayer is not limited to a single setting of our day. It is not something we only do at meal times or before bed. God does not have office hours we have to work our lives around. We have access to the God of the universe 24/7. We can, and should, speak to him on a regular, on-going basis.
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in all my prayers,” Ephesians 1:15-16
The idea of unceasing prayer is not uncommon in Paul’s letters. In his letter to the Philippian church, he remembers them “always in every prayer of [his]” (Phil. 1:3-4). When he writes to the church at Colossae, he says “we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Chris, when we pray for you” (Col. 1:3). Paul encourages believers to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). In Romans, Paul says we are to “rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Rom. 12:12).
Always. Without ceasing. Constant.
So what does this mean for a busy mom like me? It means that our day should be saturated with prayer. In this hard season of toddlerhood, I lack wisdom, I need patience, I’m prone to selfishness - it’s not pretty. On my own, I can’t stand. But with God I can reflect him in my actions, words, and thoughts. In prayer, I have access to wisdom, self-control, and love. His Spirit is able to transform my mind by renewing it day after day.
It also means we have to make prayer a priority. We need to shift our thinking (I need to shift my thinking) from practicing a routine once-a-day prayer to our total and complete NEED of prayer for every moment of our day. When my toddler melts down, my first course of action should be to go before God in prayer rather than trying to remember the latest Instagram post I read about discipline. When I’m sleep deprived because my baby refuses to sleep, I need to first bring my needs to God instead of to my coffee machine. When I’m overwhelmed by this season, I need to run to God as my refuge and seek his will in prayer and stop running to my phone to escape into the mindless scroll of social media.
Prayer is an incredible resource for the believer. It is one of those things that the more I practice, the more I realize I need it. There has yet to be a day where I’ve thought “Ugh, I just spent way too much of my time in prayer - what a waste!”
As I grow in this area of my faith, I encourage you to remember what an amazing gift it is. Even if it’s just understanding the simple fact that clicked with me that we have access to our God through prayer all. the. time. Every day. In all situations. Not just before bed or just at meal times (though those are great times to pray!) but also when we are at our lowest point, when we are stretched too thin, when we are tempted to respond sinfully, and when we haven’t got a clue how to handle our three year old’s meltdowns (maybe that one’s specific to me).
I’ll leave you with a quote from Corrie ten Boom. She once asked, "Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?"
For too long, I viewed prayer as my spare tire. I missed out on the blessing God intends for his people through prayer. Let’s encourage each other to shift our view of prayer and establish it as our steering wheel in all seasons of life.
