Important Things

Why You Should Keep a Personal Journal (and some tips for getting started)

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I’m bone-tired. Exhausted.

But when I look back over some of the entries I’ve written in my personal journal since the beginning of the year, I see that I’ve been in worse places. I forgot where I was in January/February.

I flip forward in the journal and see an entry from earlier in September…

“Yesterday was our best day this week so far!”

And an entry from a week after that…

“Ethan had another hard day yesterday.”

Sounds like a roller coaster, I know, but that isn’t the point of this post. When I read back through journal entries from earlier this year, I remembered how separated from God I felt in early 2020. I read entries where I wrote about the sin that was in my life at the time that was keeping me from Him. I was overcome with gratitude for the written record I had of my faith journey.

See, I keep a journal. I try my best to write in it daily. I keep notes from formal Bible studies I do at church as well as concepts I study on my own. When I research the original Greek words used in a Bible passage, I write it down. When I read a book of the Bible, I study and make notes on commentary about that book, plus I record my own thoughts from what I’ve read. I write out my prayers a lot, too, like I am writing a letter to God. I also write down my own thoughts on the day in general – things my family has done, current local and world events, things that are bothering me, goals I have, pretty much whatever comes into my head during my writing time.

I believe in the power of writing, can you tell?

You should try it.

If you don’t already keep a daily journal – especially if you are a Christ-follower who wants a deeper relationship with Him – grab a notebook and a pen and start today. No need to worry about grammar or punctuation. You don’t have to be a “writer.” It isn’t too time-consuming. There is so much value in writing down your thoughts, prayers, what you’re studying, and what’s going on in the world.

For example, I had completely forgotten about the spiritual pit I was in back in January/February.

How could I forget about feeling so desolate, you may ask?

Well, Covid-19.

Enough said.

But reading entries from that time was a blessing for me. It reminded me of what God has done for me, how He knew all the pleas scrawled on notebook paper (and heard the ones that never left my heart) and answered me. How He showed me that the separation was my doing. It was my willful disobedience keeping me from Him. How He forgave me when I turned from my sin and how He restored me.

As overwhelming and out of the ordinary as things have been since the spring, I can’t imagine I would have remembered the experience in such vivid detail if I hadn’t been journaling. The lesson may have been lost on me if I didn’t have a record I could reread.

I urge you – start journaling.

Get yourself a cheap spiral-bound notebook from Dollar General or order something fancy and leather-bound from Amazon. Doesn’t matter. Just get something and start writing.

Tips for Journaling

*In the inside cover of your journal, write the date you start writing in it as well as the date of your last entry.

*Date individual entries – you could even include the time of day and your location

*Set a timer – If you’re new to journaling or writing isn’t really your “thing,” start with 5 minutes on the timer. Challenge yourself to free-write – write without stopping, without worrying about how it looks or sounds – until the timer goes off. As you get more comfortable, add more time or stop using the timer altogether.

*Write whatever you want. There are no rules. No right or wrong.

*Don’t go back and reread entries to edit them. This is just about getting your thoughts out. (If the entry becomes something you want to share later on, go back and edit at that time).

*Set aside time to write every day. Make an appointment with yourself and pledge to keep it. Set a reminder on your smartphone if necessary.

*Type your journal entries into Word or Google docs (if you’re more high-tech than me. I like paper and pen). There are even voice recording apps for smartphones that you could use to dictate your entries. (I use the Voice Memo app on my IPhone when I have writer’s block or when I have a thought that I need to get out, but I can’t stop and write at the moment).

*If you get serious and decide you may want to find and post your handwritten entries or reuse them in some way, use 3M sticky labels to mark the topic of your entries, the verse you were studying, the book of the Bible you were reading, etc.

*If you’re keeping the notebooks in your home after you fill them with entries, choose a specific place to keep them – a bookshelf, drawer, or container, and put them in chronological order.

Ok, then. Ready. Set. WRITE!!!

Image Credit – Lifeway

Ok all you fellow writers and journalers out there, let me hear from you. Why do you write? What do you write about? Share your tips on starting and keeping up a writing/journaling habit.

The Important Things I Miss

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“Why did you put quotation marks around all your sentences?” I asked Emery.

She and I were editing the misspelled words in a story she’d written for school when I realized that every sentence had direct quotation marks around it.

Every.single.sentence.

Whether it contained actual dialogue or not. (And there was no actual dialogue in the story).

“My teacher told me to put them around sentences when someone talks,” she told me. “I talked. I told the whole story.”

(Clearly she doesn’t understand the difference between actual character dialogue and narration).

I was already agitated because of some other run-ins I had with her and her brother earlier in the day while trying to help them do their school work. I saw this as yet another task to accomplish that was standing between me and the end of the day.

So, I furiously erased all the quotation marks and moved on to do something else.

Emery (and Zoe) doing virtual school work.

That moment came back to me a few days later because I was rereading something I wrote in my Bible study notes, and I stopped to make my direct quotation marks look better – they looked like tiny, weird curves suspended above the line on the page.

As I fixed my own punctuation, my memory flashed back to the quotation marks Emery used in her story – the ones I erased with almost enough force to rub holes in the page.

Her marks were PERFECT.

She took great care in making them all. The round part at the top (or bottom depending if they’re open- or close-quotation marks) and the curved tail coming off were perfection. I could tell she put a great deal of effort into making each one with her pencil.

Emery’s perfect direct quotation marks. Obviously, I did not erase them as completely as I thought I had 🙂 But seriously, notice the open-quotation marks and the close-quotation marks look exactly like they’re supposed to look.

But, I didn’t compliment her on them. I didn’t even notice how careful she’d been about forming them correctly when I was in that moment. I was too busy violently erasing them and brushing pink eraser scraps off the paper to fully take in how meticulously she’d made the marks.

Isn’t that what emotion does? Distracts us with irrelevant details and makes us miss what really matters…

I missed a chance to applaud her attention to detail – to point out something she’d done well. I didn’t exactly fuss at her about them, but I was clear about my frustration with having to erase all of them.

Who wouldn’t benefit from a pat on the back?

Who doesn’t need a little extra encouragement, especially during this time of separation and alienation?

We could all use some positivity right now.

I pray I don’t miss that moment the next time around.

“Keep me in the moment; I don’t wanna miss what you have for me.” – Jeremy Camp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFuvAXzBt1E

How to Love God

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I love LOVE! There, I said it.

I especially love the idea of romantic love – I have since I can remember. I am a hopeless romantic.

Image Credit: Introvert, Dear

But, since I surrendered my life to Christ, He has taught me that I don’t know anything about love. I thought it was something I was supposed to feel. An overwhelming, all-consuming emotion. It was supposed to make me happy and giddy and forever excited to see the person who was the object of my love.

While some of that isn’t totally inaccurate, it’s only one side of the story.

I have learned that a Christian’s love should focus on God above anyone or anything else; He is the primary object of our love.

We express our love for Him by being obedient to how He said to live and by demonstrating love to other people.

God is love; therefore, Christians are love.

Many would argue that Christians aren’t love. Some of the people you’ve met proclaiming to be Christians weren’t loving. I can’t and won’t dispute that. I’ve met plenty of people proclaiming to be Christians who didn’t act loving either. Heck! I proclaim to be a Christian but don’t always show love well.

God doesn’t call us to worry about those other people as much as He calls us to do better ourselves.

Loving others is our command, and we have to do better at it.

It seems like it would help if we focus on the right thing first: God.

How do we focus on God? How do we love God?

Scripture says we must be obedient to Him.

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Jesus tells us plainly in scripture that if we love him, we will keep him commandments. (John 14:15).

All.of.them.

Both practically – living them out – and conceptually – keeping our hearts and minds pure, too. (Matthew 5:27-28 gave an example of this).

Obviously, humans cannot do this on our own.

But it’s our purpose in life to keep our focus on God as much as we can. To pray to Him to help us focus on Him and to ask forgiveness when we don’t do it.

Be obedient.

Keep His commandments.

Live like He told us to live.

Pray.

Study the Bible.

Wait for His return.

Love other people.

This is what the Bible says about demonstrating our love for God.

But, exactly how do we do that?

I don’t know. We’ve got to talk to God it.

He’s given us the basics in His Word. He expects us to study it.

Then, we go to Him in prayer for the specifics – for how each individual person is to live out the commands.

It will look different for each person based on where you are in life right now.

He may ask you to be obedient by leaving a job.

…by starting a job.

…by moving.

…by starting a ministry.

…by befriending someone.

…by trusting Him with your finances.

…by seeking Him about your relationships.

…by helping someone you don’t know.

…by forgiving someone you don’t want to forgive.

…by sacrificing your time for someone else.

…by spending more time in prayer and Bible study.

…by taking on a new responsibility at church.

…by stepping out of a responsibility at church.

Only through time in prayer with God can you discover how He has ordained that you should obey Him and show Him love. Spend that time with Him and with His Word and find out what He has for you to do.

How to Give Yourself Up For Others

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My mom was an elementary school teacher. She started teaching after she graduated college, at 21, and retired when she was in her late 50s. She loved her students, and she was excellent at her job. It was most definitely her calling in life.

Once a teacher, always a teacher though, and she has worked with all 4 of her grandchildren during their early years. They are all avid readers and super-smart (I am biased, of course, since two of her 4 grandchildren are my children).

Currently, she plans lessons using the North Carolina standards for kindergarten so she can supplement what my younger nephew does in his one day of face-to-face learning and support him on the days he is at home.

My sister, my mom, and me at the beach this summer (July 2020)

“I planned more than he could possibly do in one day, like every teacher does when they lesson plan,” she told me this afternoon when she visited my children on the way home from keeping my nephew until his parents and older brother got home from school.

Between you and me, I am certain that this woman will teach, in some capacity, until the day she dies.

Years ago, after I started my own teaching job (my sister is a teacher, too, as are 4 of my mom’s nieces – I’m not saying my mom had something to do with all of that, but who’s to say she didn’t…) and saw how much time it took outside the classroom to plan lessons and score work, I realized something: I have little to no memories of mama creating lesson plans or grading students’ work. Obviously she did both, but I have few memories of it.

I asked her about it once. She told me that she did it after school before she came home or at night after my sister and I went to bed.

When we were awake, she gave her time to caring for her family – cooking, cleaning, helping with homework, doing things together as a family. Her work was secondary to us.

She gave herself up for us. In humility, she counted the needs of her husband and children as more significant than her own needs. She looked not only to her own interests but to ours as well.

Image Credit: Pinimg.com

I had to live this out this past Monday. It was the first day of school, and our school district is doing what our governor calls “Plan B.” Students go to school one day a week for face-to-face learning with their teachers. The other four days of the week they learn virtually from home. The preschool where I worked the past two years closed in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic and elected not to reopen this fall, so I am home helping my children do their online learning. Monday, my children started 6th and 2nd grades on their computers.

It was hectic. Tedious. Frustrating.

We sat at our little round table in the kitchen and dove in. Both kids had their computers out. Although I had my own work to do to get my online class ready (I was able to pick up a course to teach online as an adjunct for a college), I knew better than to try to do anything. I knew that the day had to belong to my children.

I sat between them and literally went back and forth helping them figure out how to navigate their pages, find their assignments, learn how to do them, and submit them.

I wasn’t even upset. I knew it had to be done. The only way the first day of school had a chance to be anywhere near smooth or successful was for me to put aside what I wanted to do and focus on helping them get going.

It was painstaking. At times it was nerve wracking. But it was what had to be done. And it was what countless parents, grandparents, older siblings, aunts, uncles, close family friends, or nannies did on Monday and will continue to do until we get these kids settled into a routine of online learning so they can work more independently.

What we did – what we do on a daily basis for our children, our spouses, our co-workers, our friends, the person behind us in the checkout line at the store that we let skip us because they’re holding 5 items and we have a cart full – is a demonstration of love – agapao.

And this is how God instructed us to show love to each other.

Ephesians 5:2 – And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (ESV, emphasis added).

When we give ourselves up for other people, when we consider others’ needs and interests as more important than our own, when we outdo each other in showing honor, when we count others as more significant than ourselves, when we look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others, we show love to those people. We act out love. We love the way God loved – or as closely as we are able to in our humanness.

Image Credit: Harper Collins Christian

I’ve been studying the biblical concept of love and HOW to show love for over a month now. God has shown me things, and I pray that He will help me put what He’s taught me into practice. I don’t just want to talk about it; I want to live it and do it – even to the people who are hard to love.

Talk to God. Ask Him to show you how to love other people. Ask Him to show you ways to give yourself up for the people around you. Then, as soon as He shows you, act on it right away before the enemy can talk you out of it. It might be something big, or it might be something small. It might cost you money or time or energy, but God has promised to use our acts of love to soften hearts and bring people to Himself. And He promises a blessing on those who bless others.

What can you do to show love to someone today?

Wait…I Have to Love My Enemies?

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Image Credit: HarperCollinsChristian.com

Has this ever happened to you: Someone hurt your feelings? Talked about you behind your back? Someone was difficult to deal with? Made your life hard or unpleasant?

Of course. We’ve all experienced hurtful situations and challenging people. We may not think of these people literally as our enemies. I definitely don’t think of myself as having enemies. That word’s a little harsh. But we certainly don’t think fondly of people who have wronged us. I know I have people in my life who are difficult to love. They rub me the wrong way. Our personalities don’t mesh well.

However, Jesus was clear that believers must love our neighbor – anybody we come into contact with during the course of our day – and we must love our enemy – the people who have hurt us.

Lately, I’ve been interested in exactly HOW to love others. Does the Bible give me specific instructions on exactly what to do to show love to my neighbor and my enemy?

To find out, I went back to the verse that started this whole thing: Ephesians 5:2, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (ESV).” And I studied the two Greek words for love used in the verse – agape and agapao. Agape is a noun: a thing, concept, or an idea. Agapao is a verb: something you do, an action.

Using the Blue Letter Bible app, I read through all the verses that used agapao and noted verses that gave explicit directions – something specific to do to show love. The first concrete instructions in the New Testament using the verb agapao were given by Jesus. In Matthew 5:44, he said, “But, I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (ESV – emphasis added).”

How do we love others? How do we love people who have done us wrong? Pray for them – all of them – the ones who wronged us, treated us poorly, talked about us behind our backs, don’t deserve our kindness…

Jesus told us to have a conversation with God about that person; that’s what prayer is anyway, a conversation with God.

Can you ask God to burn the bread they’re toasting for breakfast or to give that person a flat tire on the way to work?

NO 🙂

But, you can ask God to change him or her…to make that person into someone who acts kindly, stops spreading rumors, leaves your child along at school. All those requests are fine. In our conversations with God, we’re allowed to tell Him our hearts’ desire.

However, Scripture specifically instructs us to pray for our enemies’ salvation, to express thankfulness for those people, and to pray for their well-being (1 Peter 3:9).

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Sounds extremely difficult, right? When you’re upset with someone, the last thing you want to do is to pray for that person’s well-being! No! You want to call your best friend and tell him or her about who wronged you and how angry you are.

But, this has no place in the life of a Christ-follower. Jesus said we were to love the people who persecuted us. He also said, “do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27 ESV).”

The apostle Peter echoed this when he wrote, “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing (1 Peter 3:9 ESV).”

Do good to people who hate you? Bless people who have done evil to! Can you imagine?

The Greek word used for bless means “speak well of,” and this is what God calls us to do. Don’t repay gossip with gossip or cruel words with cruel words.

Instead, try to say something pleasant to or about that person. Or, maybe try what my grandmother and mother taught me: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

Do you know what might happen in prayer with God when you talk to him about this person who is difficult to love? He might have some things to say to you as well. A conversation goes two ways, right? He may convict your heart to pray for that person’s soul and salvation. He may encourage you to overlook the offensive things that person has done and will do. He may command you to forgive. To continue to be kind no matter how you’re treated. To speak well of that person (or at least to keep your mouth shut).

So, in your prayer time with God, specifically about this difficult person, who is God actually changing?

You.

Crazy how that works, isn’t it.

I’m not saying the other person won’t also change as a result of your prayers. That is a likely outcome as well. But, God will definitely change you during your time in prayer with him.

Try it.

Right now, think of a person in your life who is difficult to deal with. Someone who has said something to you or about you or done somehting to you and upset you.

Stop right now and pray for that person. Ask God to speak to that person’s heart. Ask God to pursue that person for an intimate relationship like He (hopefully) has with you. Pray for that person’s soul and salvation. Pray for that person’s family. Job. Health.

Ask God to tell you other ways you could show kindness and love for that person and ask Him to give you the strength to do it.

Give God a chance to show you what He can do.

Image Credit: The Romantic Vineyard

Maybe this sounds unrealistic or oversimplified. And honestly, you won’t see the outcome you want from each “enemy” you pray for. But that doesn’t matter. It’s what Jesus taught, so it is what God expects. As His children, we should respond with obedience, no matter the outcome.

When Fixing a Cup of Water is an Act of Love

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Bill’s cup of water for work 🙂

Fix his water.

I read Scripture and took notes on how to walk in love for over a week and prayed for God to show me practical ways to love the people around me. But, I almost missed it when He told me something to do.

In the stillness of a recent morning, I sat at the dining room table surrounded by my Bibles, journal, and note pads having some quiet time, study time, and writing time before Bill went to work and the kids woke up and started their day.

Fix his water before he goes to the kitchen.

I smiled when I caught on. God answered my prayers.

But, I kept writing a little longer.

I thought, I hear you, God. Thank you for answering my prayer. I’ll do that in just a minute.

And I kept putting pen to paper.

Stop writing and go fix his water.

🙂

So, I fixed my husband a cup of ice water to take to work and had it ready when he came out of our bedroom.

On weekday mornings around 6:30, I stand in the kitchen and talk with Bill while he is getting his lunch ready for work. Recently, he started asking me to fix a cup of water for him as he made his sandwich.

The first time he asked me to help him – in the spring once the kids and I were home under quarantine and weren’t up getting ready for school and work – my first thought was, Nobody helps me get my stuff ready before I go to work. In fact, I do a lot of stuff the night before so I’m prepared and can get everything together quickly in the morning…

But, I don’t want to think thoughts like that. I want to be a respectful wife and help my husband when he needs me.

After all, I prayed for God to reveal to me practical ways to show love to others. Study of scripture showed me over and over that God expects believers to consider others’ needs and interests above our own.

Image Credit: https://whatyoumakeitblog.com/10-bible-verses-for-when-you-play-the-comparison-game/

And that’s what God told me to do: stop writing, something I like to do and am typically doing this same time every morning, and fix Bill’s water, something I knew would be helpful to him.

In next week’s blog post, I’ll share some of the scripture I found that explained exactly what Christian’s were to do to walk in love.

What To Do If You’re Tired of Living Like This

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I’m tired of living this way.

Tired of being afraid. Tired of being sad, angry, worried…

Because 2020 hasn’t been our year, has it?

Among other things, we continue to suffer under a global pandemic. People are afraid. Isolated. Angry. Sick and dying.

There is hatred, fear, and ignorance. Social injustice is prevalent. George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in front of witnesses who used their phones to record the crime. And the officer wasn’t arrested right away. There were protests. Riots. More people died.

And this is really just the short list of things the US has dealt with collectively since January. The sum total of our year so far means there are too many people dealing with too much pain.

And I’m tired of it. It’s time to do something.

So, I pray, and I ask God, “Father, what do I do? How do I live for you when I’m afraid? How do I live for you with so many terrible things happening?”

And I turn to my Bible.

Ephesians 5:1-2 says, “Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Well, that sounds nice. Let’s all sit around the fire and hug (no, wait, we can’t hug – gotta maintain a social distance of at least 6 feet) and sing Kumbaya.

(Honestly, I feel bad that this song is the punchline for so many jokes…really I do, but you get me, right)?

Seriously though Christians, we have to confront this pain and suffering.

What can we do? The key is in verse 2: Walk in love.

Image Credit – Gracious Quotes.com

If more people would walk in love and give ourselves up for others as Christ did, maybe we could change the way we live. If everyone is looking out for someone else, the focus is off self and onto another person.

Can you imagine?!

We can take it a step further and give ourselves up for people whether they deserve it or not! That is revolutionary! That is when God has definitely changed our hearts.

Self-sacrificial love is always a challenge but is especially hard to show for people who are unlovable or whom we decide do not deserve our love. When I love someone who is unlovable, who doesn’t deserve my affection and good will, God is at work. He is changing my heart and can use this to change the heart of the unlovable person, too.

Uh oh. I hear Kumbaya again. Do you?

Yes, I know I can be naive. I’m describing something impossible here, a utopia.

Realistically, what I propose won’t happen. It can’t, at least not completely because we’re humans. We screw up. Not everyone plays along.

But, it would have to make some difference, wouldn’t it? Even if just a small amount of people do it? A remnant?

Every little bit helps.

Practically, how do we do this? How do we walk in love?

In the verse (Eph 5:2), Paul used the Greek word “agape” for love. It is a noun that means affection, good will, benevolence, and brotherly love.

Showing good will (having a friendly disposition) might look like this:

Smiling or having a pleasant look on your face

Being kind to the cashier at the store or wait staff at the restaurant

Correcting your children or other people with gentleness

Avoiding arguments or attacking someone’s opinion on social media

Self-sacrificial love (giving yourself up for others) might look like this:

Overlooking offenses

Looking for the best in the situation or the person

Letting go of our own agenda to do something for someone else

***Remember, even the tiniest light starts to drive out the darkness.

How can YOU walk in love today? Just today.

We’ll worry about tomorrow when it gets here.

Should My Children go to School This Year?

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When Ethan reads, he won’t let Emery get near him, look over his shoulder, nothing! Yet, here he is, practically sitting on top of her to read over her shoulder!

Where I live, a big question for a lot of people right now is – should I send my children to school inside the classroom this year? Should they go 100% virtual? Should I take them out of school and homeschool them?

Lots of people are also asking, “How can I choose any of these options and keep my job? Who will keep my kids during the day when they aren’t at school? What is the best option for my children? For our family”?

I can’t answer these questions for you, but God knows the path He has for your family. He will reveal that to you (if He hasn’t already), all you have to do is ask. Then wait for His response.

You may wonder, “how will I know God is speaking to me?” Well…that’s a good question 🙂

I will never forget the first time I asked that question, and in response, I left my full-time job to be a work-from-home-mom.

Since taking that leap of faith with my family, I’ve become very interested in understanding how to hear God’s voice. So, I’ve studied the Bible for examples of how God interacted with people, and I’ve read books and articles written by people on the topic.

Although I still have a lot to learn, I can tell you what it feels like when you obey God from my personal experience. I also know what can happen when you choose to disobey God.

On the other hand, experience has taught me what Satan’s voice is like as well as some of the tricks he’ll try to use to distract you from hearing from God.

So, while I can’t tell you exactly what you should do in terms of your children’s school situation for the 2020/2021 school year, I can tell you this: Pray about it. Specifically ask God to show you what to do. Then, wait to hear His voice.

When you think you’ve heard from Him, ask yourself if what you think He said is consistent with scripture. Ask yourself if what you think you heard is persistent – you keep getting the same message over and over. Also, ask yourself if you feel at peace with what you think you’ve heard Him say. All these are pretty good indications that you have heard from God. Now all you have to do is do what He says!

Back in the last winter/early spring during our quarantine school days 🙂

Day 7 – Challenge Complete

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We’ve completed the challenge – 7 days of intentionally spending more time with God than we do watching/reading the news or on social media. We should pat ourselves on the back 🙂

On the last day of the challenge, I was able to spend about an hour and a half in quiet time with God – praying and reading the Bible. Also on Day 7, I logged 12 minutes on Facebook.

On the surface, the challenge was a success. Over a period of 7 days, I was able to spend more time with God each day than I did scrolling Facebook.

I accomplished my goal.

But I don’t want to fool myself into thinking I “won” just because I met the challenge.

This exercise brought other issues to the surface.

For example, even in successfully completing the challenge according to the original terms explained by my pastor, my focus on God this week wasn’t necessarily genuine. I realized that much of the time was spent trying not to look at Facebook rather than on trying to spend more time with God. I avoided Facebook as much as I could; that was my focus. I concentrated on what I shouldn’t do rather than on what I should do.

That is legalism, and I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to focus on the outward and ignore the inward. I want my heart to change.

Instead of concerning myself with what I shouldn’t do, I should make looking at God the focus of my energy. In reality, Facebook isn’t the enemy. An unguarded heart and eyes that don’t focus on God are the enemy.

Also, because of the challenge, I was forced to acknowledge other things I do throughout the day that take my focus off God, even once I drastically cut time on Facebook.

Using the Screen Time setting on my smartphone to log my daily phone usage, I could tell that I spent fewer minutes on Facebook than I normally do. But, while I logged less time on that app, time on other applications increased, taking Facebook’s place. For example, most days this week, I spent more than an hour a day texting.

This reiterates something I already learned – I shouldn’t focus on not scrolling on Facebook (because I might be tempted to simply fill in that time with something else on my phone). I should focus instead on keeping my eyes on God. If I do that, many of the other things should fall away on their own.

However, there was still rich quiet time with God this week, and time spent with God is never wasted.

What did I learn during our time in prayer and in reading the Bible?

I was reminded that God will make a way.

I was reminded, through a friend’s input, that all God wants is me – nothing fancy – just my genuine desire to simply be with him. I don’t need to worry about meeting a challenge. I don’t need to attempt to check “quiet time with God” off my to-do list for the day. I just need to be in His presence.

That is refreshing and freeing. There is no singular right way to spend time with God. I don’t need to set a timer or watch a clock to be sure I do it for a certain amount of time. I don’t need to read a certain number of scriptures from the Bible. I don’t need to pray for a certain number of prayer needs. I don’t need to make sure I sit in the same position or in the same place every time. I just need to get still and quiet and listen to and talk with God.

What about you? Would you say the challenge was a success for you? What did you learn through this exercise?

How do you feel after 7 days of focusing more on God than on news outlets or social media? Compare your current mood or attitude right now to how you felt when you first read about the challenge? Feel free to share here.

Whatever the outcome for you, let’s continue to concentrate on God. Let’s continue to weed out the things in our lives that cause us to lose focus on Him. When God shows us stumbling blocks, let’s remove them.

After all, the idea is to keep our minds and hearts on Jesus – not to spend less time looking at news outlets or scrolling Facebook.

Give God first place. Top priority.

Have faith in Him

Obey Him

Follow Him

Look at Him

Day 6 – Challenge Update

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The time for the challenge is quickly coming to an end – just one day left. It has been a learning experience for me.

What about you?

This morning, I was able to spend just over an hour in quiet – praying, reading my Bible and commentaries on what I read, taking notes, and journaling my thoughts about the reading and journaling another prayer to God. During Day 6, I logged 12 minutes on Facebook.

As I’ve mentioned in some of my other challenge updates, I have been able to spend less time on Facebook, but when I look at the log on the Screen Time setting of my iPhone, I notice that I’m still using the phone a lot throughout the day, even as I manage to stay off Facebook. For instance, on Day 6, I logged over an hour on my Fitbit app with almost 30 minutes of that time happening before 7 a.m.

What in the world was I doing on Fitbit for nearly an hour in one day?

I have no idea, but it is clear that I still have a lot of work to do in minimizing smartphone usage throughout my day as a whole. It still consumes a lot of my time.

I’m curious to hear from you. Did you take the challenge? How have you done each day?

On the days you spent less time watching the news or on social media, what changes did you make in you behavior?

On days that you weren’t able to meet the challenge, what happened?

What have you heard God saying to you during the increased time with Him you’ve spent each day?

***To help you get an idea of what a quiet time could be like, I asked a variety of people to share what they do to spend time with God. Here’s what Tiffany had to say –

For my quiet time, I have to do it in the morning to get my mind right for the day. I like to do studies that make me think and I love to discuss things with other believers. I say a little prayer to get started and I try to give myself enough time to pray afterwards and to sit quietly even if it is just for a couple of minutes.  If I don’t get up before my kids, I won’t get it done. I have also found that on days when I skip my quiet time, I have a harder time doing the things that I know I should do like staying calm when things go crazy. I am 38, a teacher, married with 2 kids and a dog.