4 Keys to Prioritizing God for the Solopreneur Parentಮಾದರಿ

Schedule Prayer Time (But Be Flexible)

Pre kids, I was a huge advocate for praying and reading the Word to start my day. But as soon as I had children, I experienced difficulty continuing that practice. The moment I thought they slept through the night; they woke up before my alarm was even close to ringing. At some point, I had to wake up at 4 a.m. if I wanted some quiet time. That was where I drew the line, I didn’t believe God wanted me to be more sleep-deprived for the sake of sticking to a morning ritual.

I had to become more creative. I had to acknowledge that if I wanted to seek His kingdom first, I had to be flexible about scheduling quiet time. The fact is that there’s always time on our hands, but sometimes we just have to create it. What I mean is the following, Naptime was a sacred moment for me. I would work on the chores highest on my to-do list and challenge myself to cross them all off. Could I vacuum, mop, clean the dishes, and prep dinner just before my children woke up?

Or could I work through my email and write the next newsletter instead? Often, I succeeded. I got pretty good at being a time genius, but I soon realized I was using the time at my disposal to seek my household kingdom or business kingdom first rather than God’s kingdom. At the end of the day, I ended up in bed, exhausted, not having sought God’s kingdom at all. That’s when I renewed my thinking by looking at how Jesus handled His relationship with God.

Ever notice how Jesus never compromised His time with the Father? According to the Bible, He often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:16). Did Jesus have tons to do and busy days ahead with many people asking for His attention? Absolutely, but He showed us that nothing mattered until He spent time with the Father.

That led me to schedule my quiet time during the sacred naptime. I trusted that God could stop time just for me (after all, He’s done it before; see Joshua 10:12-15) to complete my tasks because I prioritized Him instead. So far, that hasn’t happened, yet. Since I don’t think any task was that important, but He did give me enough energy to mop in the evening or to write a killer newsletter right before my head hit the pillow.

Look, the Lord doesn’t want you or me to create our own laws. If you have scheduled to spend time with Him and it didn’t work out, it’s okay. You can try at a later time. The key here is to actually schedule some time because the day will take over if you don’t. Naptimes might work for me. For you, it might be bedtime. Or lunchtime. Or small breaks during your workday.

Or an evening walk while breathing in some fresh air. When and where don’t matter as long as it’s scheduled, and as long as you’re flexible if you can’t get to it when you expect. Gotta love a good paradox.