Don't Believe the Lie That You're Too Busy

I have had many conversations with dear friends who feel defeated because they want to engage their kids in spiritual activities and conversation, but they feel too busy and overwhelmed to start.

The idea that we are too busy to teach our kids about God is a lie from the enemy. But only half of the lie has to do with our busyness. The root of this lie may actually be that we believe teaching our children about God has to look a certain way, and carving out special, separate “God time” feels overwhelming and impossible.

In the book of Deuteronomy, God instructs Moses to teach the Israelites how they are to raise their children to keep the faith as they prepare to enter the promised land:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."
-Deuteronomy 6:4-7

Jesus is not a to-do item that we schedule into our lives in neat chunks. Our entire lives need to be saturated with Him. When we sit playing Legos, walk to the park, drive to soccer practice, or eat supper together, these are moments when we can incorporate simple spiritual conversation and instruction.

For the longest time, I felt frustrated because we could never get a good morning Bible-reading routine going. One day, as we drove my oldest to school, it hit me. All of my children are strapped down and cannot run away from me. So I started doing morning prayers or scripture memory in the car. Sometimes the kids participate, sometimes they don’t. Now it has become a habit, and I didn’t carve anything new into our morning. I used what we were already doing.

This week, look for ordinary opportunities throughout your day when you can speak truth into your children’s lives. As you continue to intentionally seek these opportunities, you’ll likely find rhythms and habits that begin to fit seamlessly into the structure of your family’s unique schedule.