Pursuing Christ as a Mom- Guest Post by Hannah Schopf

Hannah is a loving wife, and mama to five little ones. I know you’ll be encouraged by her thoughts on devotions during a busy, busy time of life!  

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Flipping through the pages of an old journal recently, I came across an entry I’d penned shortly after our second child was born. In it, I’d carefully laid out a plan for how I’d make time to read my Bible, pray, memorize Scripture, and worship each morning. I’d go to bed at 10, get up at 6, and have an hour of prime quiet time before Samuel, our firstborn, got up. No problem!

You can probably guess how well that worked out. The baby wasn’t very cooperative. She woke up more often than she was supposed to, which meant I did too, which meant 10-6 did not represent 8 hours of sleep. And as soon as I set out with this new strategy, Samuel magically started to wake up earlier than he ever had before. Six AM was no longer early enough.

Three kids later (for a total of five), I couldn’t help but laugh a little as I read that,  because now I know that’s just what motherhood is like!

Over the years of my time as a mom, my emotional response toward the daily pursuit of Christ has too often been one of despair, guilt, and confusion rather than excitement and joy. Night feedings, whirlwind mornings, and tired afternoons have often left me feeling like it’s impossible to find a good time to read my Bible, much less study and meditate on it. Through it all, God has revealed a lot about my heart and where my desires truly lie. He has faithfully been at work, changing me and finishing the good work He started (Phil. 1:6). I’m certainly not a “finished work” yet (!!), but from my heart to yours, I’d like to share some things I’ve been learning along the way.

First, He’s taught me to be willing to let go of ideals. Yes, I’m talking about that perfect “Quiet Time” requiring a comfy chair, a cup of coffee, a Bible, quiet (of course), and maybe some beautiful rays of early morning sunshine splashing across the whole scene (preferably not a toy-strewn living room). It took a while for me to see it, but after years of frustration over only rarely being able to accomplish that beautiful morning routine, the Lord opened the eyes of my heart to see that it had really been a self-centered pursuit anyway. More than wanting to learn from God’s Word, I simply wanted to feel good, like I had done what faithful Christian moms should do, and in my mind, that meant having picturesque devotional times. (I also liked the idea of coffee and quiet!)

Through experiences like these, God has taught me that if what’s driving me is real, gnawing hunger for God, I will find ways and means to seek Him, whether or not the setting is ideal. Starving people don’t insist on filet mignon; they’re happy to gobble down a granola bar! Hour-long chunks of time to devote to Scripture might be hard to come by in these days of diapers, sibling squabbles, and endless messes, but what about the minutes-long ones? Am I spiritually hungry enough to keep notecards with verses tucked in my pockets, or to turn nursing time into Scripture memory time? To play a dramatized Bible over lunch, or to scarf down a quick bite myself so that I can read God’s Word aloud as the kids eat theirs? To hold a little hand in a moment of prayer when a need comes to mind or just to tell the Lord we love Him?

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Secondly, He’s taught me that the Bible isn’t a box of Bandaids. Too many times, I have gone to the Word just wanting a sweet devotional thought or a little salve for a weary heart. Bandaids for my owies. (Hmm, sounds like some little people I know!) But with that as my goal each time I crack open my Bible, guess how many times I turn to Leviticus? Or Amos? Or anything other than the Psalms and New Testament Epistles? If you guessed never, you are correct! There’s nothing wrong with going to a particular passage for a particular need or sorrow, but even in the midst of these whirlwind days as mamas, we should still strive to be good students of the Word who approach it in a way that honors the Author. That will mean days when our only Scripture intake is about “who begat who”, and it’s hard to come away from that feeling blessed and helped! But the fruit of putting in that effort, little by little, day by day, year after year, to really know the length and depth and breadth and height of God’s Biggest and Best Story is tremendously precious. It’s not about how we feel, but about investing careful, worshipful effort into a long-term endeavor yielding fully-formed, deliciously sweet fruit.

Lastly, through all the ups and downs of my attempts (or lack thereof) at seeking the Lord throughout these child-rearing years, His example has become sweeter and more meaningful than ever. If anyone knows what it’s like to be crazy busy, to be hard at serving day in and day out, to be assailed with questions and cries for help, to feel myriad hands pressing in to touch the hem of His garment, it’s Jesus. He knows what it’s like to be bone-weary, to cry, to just need to get away for awhile. He had real, human nerves and real, human needs. (For a good example of these truths, read through Matthew 14 or Mark 6.) Yet He found ways to be alone with His Father, even if it meant rising a long while before daylight, or going to a deserted place, or staying up into the wee hours of the night. (No idyllic quiet times necessary!) He acknowledged His dependence on God and faithfully demonstrated it, even in the face of intense demands—especially in the face of intense demands. Oh that I would diligently do the same in my daily life as a mom!

So what does pursuing Christ look like in my life right now, with five children aged 11 to 1? It looks like bedhead and bad breath as we pray together before breakfast. It looks like a print-out of James 1 stuck on the wall by the rocking chair, where I can think on it while I nurse. It looks like using a Scripture passage for the day’s homeschool penmanship assignment, or an art project by using the colored pencils to copy it down in pretty lettering. (see pictures below) It looks like verses tacked above the washer and dryer, or earbuds and SermonAudio as I fold and sort. I still have plenty of days when I’m self-absorbed and apathetic toward the Lord, but I can testify to the truth of Jeremiah 29:13, that if I seek the Lord with all of my heart, I find Him every time.