Prayer

It was really hard specially when the kids were younger to find the time to be alone with God, I was tired most of the time and they demanded a lot of my time. As soon as I would try to sit down and pray, either I fell asleep or I would use that time to do other things that "needed" to be done. Now that they are a bit older it is easier, but other things arise, like homeschooling, extra curriculum activities, laundry, friends... and many other. So my time has not changed, I am just as busy as I was before, the only thing that has changed is the age of my kids and the activities that surround me. But, the truth is that there are many excuses in life why I was not faithful then and why I was not faithful now. I read and pray with my kids and in my mind I justified that that counted, since God knew how busy I was. But that was just how bad habits formed in my life.

How many times are we going to excuse ourselves to not go before the father every day, alone with him, crying out for Him, more than here and there during your day. How are we expect to grow, be godly wives and moms, have a quiet and gentle spirit, if we do not talk to Him privately.

Well, I don't want my kids to get into this bad habit that I got into of not having private prayer, excusing myself behind the business of life. We decided to include as our daily activities, private prayer time, we started with 15 min. to give to the Lord in the middle of our day it has gradually increased, at this time, the kids and I have a list of prayer requests and reading Bible time. There are days where it seems virtually impossible to do this, but if we have time to eat lunch, we have time to spend with the One who gives us that food. We start our day with Bible reading and prayer before any school starts, in the middle of the day, we give the Lord our private time and at night, we have Bible reading and prayer as a family. But that private prayer is probably one of the most treasured time in my day..... because it is there where He teaches us to pray. There is no one to impress or no one hearing your most intimate prayers.. it is there, where you can say the desires of your heart, and be changed. It is there, where my strength has been renewed like the eagle, it is there, where I get the self control I need to talk to my husband or kids, it is there, where He works in me.

There are a few things that are important in life, and while we are here we need to work on our soul above all things. That is something I tell my kids often: " when the teen ages come, you have to have good habits of private prayer and self control, or it would be three times harder to try to pursue them then. It is now that you need to work in your soul if you want to avoid pain and struggle in the days to come". And that I saw in my own life, how hard it is to have the time with God as a priority, but the more I do this, the more I want and miss my time with Him when I do not have it.

There are habits that are good for your body, good for your mind, but few are good for your soul. If we care for the state of our soul, lets work on those habits first that will last for eternity. Since heaven will be a place where we will be with God forever, then we need to spend time with Him and practicing communion with Him, and if we do not have that as our priority here on earth, then how are we going to know the One who we'll spend eternity with.