Does your schedule ever get so busy your Bible sits in the spot you placed last Sunday and you just realized it’s Thursday already even though it feels like Monday? You know you need to read your Bible to grow a relationship with Christ and guilt rises when you realize you’ve missed that Bible reading. How do you go about making Bible reading a priority when there’s so much jam-packed into your on-the-go schedule?

On average, I work 45 hours/week outside of our home, spend 25 hours/week helping my husband’s ministry, spend 8 hours a week writing, reading or lesson planning, and I have a 3-years-old and my housekeeping to keep up with. I know I’m not alone in my busyness because the most common descriptive word for the modern day Christian woman is “tired.” I realized a while ago that my schedule was a formidable enemy to my quiet time with God. It’s tough, right? Tough, but not impossible.

So how do we practically and realistically make more time to read God’s Word on the really busy weeks?

1. Read your Bible first. I know this seems cliche. But really — read your Bible before you leave your bed. That’s even if you only have time for one verse. I’ve never been a morning person and a little part of me feels like it’s dying every time I hear someone say to read your Bible in the morning.  I’ve told myself often on hectic mornings that I didn’t have time because reading my Bible would take longer than the few minutes I had before I needed to leave. But here’s the thing: that’s just a lame excuse not to do it. On days I start with “God time,” I handle stress caused by my schedule much better. Just try it: for one week, stop using the snooze button and start to read at least one verse of Scripture every day before you leave your bed… even on days when you wake up late. There’s no way I could convince my body to get out of bed any earlier than I already am, but I can use those 20 minutes of snooze time to read instead. Most days I can read two chapters in about 5 minutes before I continue on with my day. I can think about what I’ve just read through the rest of my morning prep and commute. It’s easy to use the fact that we rarely have an hour to spend reading God’s Word first thing in the morning as an excuse to not start our day in His Word. That’s a flimsy excuse if you really think about it. Why would I limit my Bible reading by refusing Him 5 minutes just because I don’t have an hour?
2. Limit your screen time. When we first got married, I would binge watch Netflix for hours on the weekends. I would spend an hour after getting into bed to scroll through Pinterest and Facebook! But I realized that if I gave all this time to a screen instead of God, I’d never read my Bible the way I needed to for a healthy relationship with Him. By watching one less tv show episode a day and avoiding Pinterest at night, we could give God an extra 45 minutes with very minimal effort. Instead of zoning out, we can tune in to what He wants to show us in His Word. I’m not saying that we should never watch TV or that Facebook is the ultimate time waster with no purpose (because hello I love Facebook). What I am saying is that we cannot allow a screen to take up all of our time.
3. Schedule your Bible reading. When I first decided I wanted to focus on reading my Bible every day years ago, I wrote out my schedule in half hour increments and scheduled myself time for God’s Word. What doesn’t get scheduled doesn’t happen, right? I used that schedule to find my best Bible reading time slots (at that time) were my lunch breaks, the half hour after I got home from work before starting dinner, and the hour right before bed. We can schedule more Bible time by seeing on paper what time we aren’t scheduling for anything else. By planning to read our Bible, we can prepare for that time: put a Bible app on your phone, put your Bible in your lunch bag, place your Bible next to that spot on our couch where you sit folding laundry at night to remind you of the plan. Starting with a schedule will teach you to look for times when you can read God’s Word instead of focusing on the times when you can’t.
4. Stop allowing one day’s failure to determine your success for the rest of the week. I still occasionally have rough schedule days where I find myself having only read a little bit of the Bible first thing in the morning. I used to wake up the morning after a day where I missed my Bible reading and get so defeated about it that I would then avoid God’s Word out of guilt. Don’t let yesterday’s failure with Bible reading ever keep you from being successful the rest of your week. He wants a relationship with you through conversation (His Word) every day. Think of it this way: if you talked to your dad on a regular basis, but then missed one phone call, would you feel guilty and avoid your dad’s calls then or would you pick up the next time he called? God just wants to talk to you: keep “picking up the phone” even if you miss a day.

We cannot develop a real relationship with our Savior without reading our Bibles and it’s time to stop making excuses as to why we’re not doing it. God wants to talk to you! He doesn’t require you to sit down for 2 hours at a time in order to speak to you through His Word. Ultimately, the only person who can determine to use their time to connect with God is you. Is it a priority? Then it’s time to make it happen. You can do it! 🙂

Love, Meghan