An Intentional Walk

My plan was to begin writing about being intentional in my faith and relationship with God weeks ago; but each time that I sat down to begin I didn’t know how!  This area of intentional living is probably the most important aspect of all; I believe that it is the foundation for every other area in our lives in which we can begin to live with intention and purpose.  Because I feel such a burden and passion about this I have had about a million thoughts and ideas running through my head over the past month as I’ve thought, prayed and soul searched what I wanted to share with all of you about having an intentional faith in the Lord.  I’ve finally decided just to start at the beginning of my journey and go from there, because it has been a journey…..a journey of daily walking with Him.

                This journey of faith is different for each one of us.  Some of us walk towards God dragging our feet, digging our heals in, resisting Him for years until something in our life brings us to our knees before Him.  For some we run…..we run hard…..in the opposite direction!  And then maybe someone comes into our life and introduces us to The One that desperately wants us to stop running away from Him and instead run to Him.  Maybe some of you are still running and are not at all convinced that you need or want God in your life; or maybe you are running because you don’t believe that God can ever truly love you because of the messiness that defines your life. 

                  And then for some of us the journey is a gradual walking towards Him, trusting and following Him without too much difficulty.  I think that when we decide to trust in Jesus when we are younger it’s an easier journey because we have the simple faith of a child; it doesn’t take a whole lot to convince us that God is there, that Jesus is real and that He loves us and has a plan for us.  I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love Jesus, when I didn’t believe in Him.  And yet there were plenty of years when I believed but didn’t give Him the proper authority in my life.  I believed and worshipped and loved the Lord….when it was convenient for me…..Like on Sunday mornings….but then the rest of the week belonged to me.  And then in my early 20’s life got real for me…..I felt real discouragement and real disappointment and real shame and real fear.  All of a sudden I needed Jesus in my life more than just on Sunday mornings when I was sitting in a pew in church.  I needed Him desperately to show me which path I was supposed to take, who I was in Him and who He was supposed to be in my life.  I needed Him to be in my life every day, every minute of the day.  I needed Him to be real and I needed to be real with Him.

                This was a turning point in my journey with the Lord.  This was when I realized that a relationship with Him required attention and intention…..not just once a week but every day for a lifetime.  I am so blessed to have a mother who has built a “Quiet Time” into her days.  Growing up I remember Mom getting up before the sun and sitting in her favorite chair, with just one light on and her Bible.  A box that holds her Bible, notebooks and a journal has been a constant in my parent’s home no matter where they have lived.  I watched as she made this chunk of time that she spent with the Lord a priority in her life.  As I grew older I remember many days spent doing chores, feeding cattle, riding horseback or cleaning the house where our conversations turned to what she had gleaned from that morning’s Quiet Time.  She shared with me once that on the days when she missed this time spent with the Lord her entire day was completely off kilter.  She taught me that it was hard to trust in Someone that we didn’t know, and the only way to know Him was to spend time with Him.  My mother instilled in me a strong sense of the importance of spending time with God in His Word every day.  But not until that point in my early 20’s did I choose to make it a priority for myself.  And now I can say with my mom…..if my day doesn’t start with the Lord, my day doesn’t start off right! 

                Some of you may be wondering “what in the world is she talking about?  What does she mean by a ‘Quiet Time’?”  All that I mean by “Quiet Time” is time carved out of your day dedicated to and spent with the Lord.  I joke all the time that I am refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to face my day as I spend that hour to hour and a half with the Lord in the morning…….I can face anything and anyone as I sit at my kitchen table after spending time with God……that is until my family wakes up and I actually have to put into practice whatever I learned during my Quiet time…..that’s when it gets difficult!   But that is a joke….the time that I spend with God first thing in the morning is what sets the mood and my focus for the entire day.  Depending on how early I wake up (anywhere from 4:00 to 5:00 in the morning) I spend time praying, reading from either the Old Testament or New Testament and the Psalms or Proverbs in the Bible, I generally have one or two devotions that I read (Our Daily Bread, Streams in the Desert, My Utmost For His Highest, and In Touch are some of my favorites), and then I journal for about 15 to 30 minutes.  Sometimes I spend the entire time in prayer, sometimes I spend the entire time in His word.  Each day I come ready for Him to reveal something to me. 

                When I first began reading the Bible I bought a Student Bible and wondered where in the world to start, and I wondered if I was going to get bored quick……after all this was the Bible, how interesting was it going to be??  But then I discovered the truth of Psalm 119: 103, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”  God’s word has proven to be true and life giving and comforting and full of wisdom and love and grace and peace…..His Word is full of adventure and real life trials and pain and victories; however His Word has never once proven to be boring!  The more that I have read it the more that I have desired to be in His Word every day, His word to me is sweeter than honey……I learn something new each time that I read it. 

                Now, I have to be honest and tell you all that I am naturally a morning person.  My favorite time of the day is early in the morning, when the stars are still out and everyone is still in bed.  It probably has something to do with my ranch upbringing, but getting up before the sun is not a hardship for me, it is the time of day when I am at my best, my mind is clear and I am ready to start.  But I realize that for a lot of you it is not that easy…..you wake up with more of a fuzzy mind than a clear one, you can’t focus enough to see the coffee pot much less your Bible.  I know so many women who become discouraged with the thought of having a consistent Quiet Time because we tend to correlate “Quiet Time” with “Early Morning Time”.

                 Or maybe you are in a phase of life when your kids are little and having any kind of “quiet” seems completely out of the question.  I know what that’s like!  Trust me, when Kade was a baby to about 3 years old I had to get real creative on getting that Quiet Time into my day.  With Hannah it was easy; she seemed to have been born with an innate sense of my need for this early morning quiet time.  But with my second child I was not so fortunate.  For three years this boy could hear me the second I got out of bed….he had an innate sense of me being awake and then it was “early morning Kade time”!  Having ten minutes to myself in the bathroom in order to read a devotion or listening to a sermon online while cooking dinner was sometimes as good as it got during those years.  Some of my most precious memories are of praying as I was nursing my children in the middle of the night or early in the morning.  Yes, I know what it’s like during those years when our children are tiny and oh so needy….and God knows even more so! He recognizes and appreciates how our lives are consumed with those little humans; and yet He still wants us to give Him the best part of our days.  In God’s economy, if we are willing to give him the best and the first part of our days, He is able to supply for the remainder of our hours!

                If you are in this phase of life, or if you just aren’t a morning person, then maybe you simply need to get creative in how you spend time with Him.  I’m not talking about giving Him your leftovers, but rather look for opportunities to spend time with Him.  Maybe you have a commute to and from work; there are so many great podcasts or sermons online that you can download and listen to on your drive.  Or spend your drive praying!  When Hannah was a baby until she was two years old I had about an hour on the road as I drove from Meeteetse Wyoming to my aunt’s house 15 minutes outside of Cody Wyoming where I worked.  I spent that hour in the morning praying for everyone that God brought to mind.  I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever had that deep of a time for prayer since.  I have friends who have a real struggle with sleep at night, so they use that opportunity to read the Bible or pray, figuring that if they are losing sleep they might as well give that time to the Lord!  If you aren’t a morning bird like me, but are more of a night owl like many of my friends, then carve out a Quiet Time with Him after your kids have gone to bed and you can enjoy the solitude of the evening.  I don’t think that God is as concerned with what time you give to Him, as long as you are intentional about giving Him time in your day. 

                That being said, I would like to encourage you to choose one or two mornings a week, or even once a month, to sacrifice sleep and get up before the sun and your family.  There truly is something about early mornings spent with the Lord, pouring out our hearts and expectations and concerns to Him.  If we are able to do that first thing in our day, and then give the rest of it to Him, we are then able to have a proper focus for whatever the rest of the day has in store for us!  Psalm 5:3 says, “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”  If we intentionally choose to go to God in those early morning hours, He will meet us there and it will set the tone for the rest of the day. 

                However you choose to spend “Quiet Time” with God, I just encourage you to begin to carve time out of your busy schedule and give it to Him.  Make an intentional decision to put Him first in your day…..giving Him your schedule, your time, your energy and your talents to use to glorify Him and build up His Kingdom.  God bless you as you intentionally draw closer to the One who has called you by name (Isaiah 43:1).