When Children Interrupt MY Time in The Word

Lately, the Lord has been showing me the necessity of being in His Word on a daily basis. I can’t read Psalm 119 without realizing the importance of God’s Word in my daily life. Some days I come with anticipation and sometimes I come with reluctance. Either way, I come out of obedience to Him who “rescued me from the domain of darkness and transferred me to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)

This morning I came exhausted from staying up late and being awakened by a little one in the middle of the night. I came hoping for time alone with God. Instead I had one, then two, then three children surrounding me while I tried to read the Bible.

I’d like to say that they eagerly and quietly listened to me as I read the passage in Scripture but that was not the case. They came full of energy and noise and even full of grumbling and complaining. My spirit grew frustrated although I tried to keep a calm tone in my voice and a loving smile on my face.

Before my kids started showing up, I had prayed that the Lord would speak to me through His Word this morning. He answered my prayer through my reading in Leviticus. You know, that book in the Bible that we rarely want to read because it is all about rules and regulations and sacrifices that don’t seem relevant to our live’s today.

First, God brought Leviticus to life for me. Those passages (Leviticus 1-7) about burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings that seemed so dry and boring before, now had meaning. All the talk of throwing blood against the side of the altar (Leviticus 1:5) and taking the skin, flesh, head, legs, entrails and dung of a bull outside the camp to be burned (Leviticus 4:11-12), now made sense. All of it shouted to me of God’s Holiness. It demonstrated His disgust with sin. It reminded me of the bloody price that must be paid for our transgressions.

Then, the Lord revealed another truth to me through His Word. He showed me my own sin. Right there in the midst of reading His Word with my children’s interruptions, I saw the ugliness of my sin. I was full of selfishness (Philipians 2:3), desiring in my heart to be left alone without the responsibility of motherhood. I was full of entitlement (Philippians 2:5-8), insisting that I deserved uninterrupted time with the Lord because I had gotten up early. My heart was not seeking after the things of God (Colossians 3:1-2). My spirit was severely lacking in compassion (Colossians 3:12).

I spend a moment confessing my own sin. It was a brief and noisy moment with children climbing on me and hugging me and wanting to hold my Bible. However, it was long enough for me to confess my sins to the One who is faithful and just to forgive me of my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9). It was long enough for to me pray that in every word I said and every deed I did today, that I would do everything for the glory of God, giving thanks to God in all circumstances. (Colossians 3:17, 1 Corinthians 10:31, 1 Thessalonians 5:18).

It was also a moment to model for my kids the power of God’s Word, the joy that follows repentance and the way God works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28). That good, I told my kids, is to become conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

To my fellow moms: God’s Word is necessary for our daily lives. Don’t neglect it in the craziness of motherhood. And remember, those children that the Lord has blessed us with are often the means by which God exposes our sinfulness and allows us to serve Him. For what we do to the least of these, we do for the Lord (Matthew 25:40).