Quiet Time.

        When I was little I used to hear everyone talking about having a “Quiet Time”. I wasn’t sure what on earth it was, but I wanted one when I grew up! I just knew when I grew up and had my quiet time I would be an adult. I didn’t figure out what it was until 5th grade when my dad explained it in Sunday school. 

       For starters Quiet Time sounded like a very odd title to me. I was a 5th grader and like most Quiet had not become my favorite word. Did you just sit there and wait or what? I was probably thinking about school when we had to put our heads down because we were giving our teacher a headache, which we did quite frequently. My dad explained it differently than I imagined, I don’t remember his exact wording but he called it “a time with God”. A time with God, I was probably 10 and that flew right over my head, God was in heaven! How was He going to come over to my house everyday, spend time with me, and still make it to all the other kids too! However it sounded pretty neat so I went home, got out my bible and read. Funny thing is God never knocked on my front door. How are we supposed to spend time with God if he never comes over? Now there was probably much more to my dad’s lesson and it was probably amazing, they always were, but I had zoned out when nothing happened, I just stopped. If God wasn’t going to talk to me why sit there with my bible open waiting? So I put that aside and went on with my life. 

Fast Forward one year later I was in 6th grade and I still had not grasped this subject. In fact, I went through most of my 6th grade year without a quite time. I got out my bible and read every once and a while but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do God still wasn’t waiting in front of my house! It wasn’t until the end of my 6th grade summer that I saw my mom doing a Beth Moore bible study and decided to try it that way. Everyday I would get my notebook, study, read and write and I was final doing it! I had a quiet time but I still wondered if I was doing it right. I felt like something was still missing. 

I didn’t discover my answer to this question until 8th grade. I discovered God was showing up I wasn’t answering the door.  I had already accepted Christ but I wasn’t being open to him, I wasn’t listening to him, and I wasn’t seeking him, I was just going through the motions. Proverbs 2:1-5 says “My son if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear towards wisdom and applying your heart to understanding- Indeed if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as silver and search for it as hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” A few phrases stuck out to me- turn you ear towards, apply your heart to, call out for I, cry aloud for, search and look, accept within you, understand and find. Those are all verbs, or actions. A relationship with God, spending time with Him, knowing Him, is a two way street. We have to get up, open our hearts, turn our ears, and search. The Bible says search as a hidden treasure or silver, those are precious things, something you wouldn’t stop looking for. God and his love are more precious than we can imagine!

       A Quiet Time is active because it is part of your relationship with God! It doesn’t matter whether you read scripture or have a study like Beth Moore or Emily Barnes you just need to actively spend time seeking him. You don’t have to be completely totally quiet! I sing sometimes for part of my quiet time because I love to sing praise songs to God, I do a day of the Beth Moore study and have time to pray and just listen. My dad reads a chapter of the bible and writes his own thoughts and questions. My mom does Beth Moore bible study and spends time praying. You can highlight verses in your bible and write down notes, I love that! My bibles are marked up and underlined everywhere. You could also go to small group and do the study for your quiet time. The heart reason for a quiet time is actively seeking time with God; it doesn’t have to be long at all. One thing I love about Quiet time is I can pour out my heart to God and I don’t have to be profound- just myself. I don’t have to impress him. Trust me he knows my every thought he is not impressed by me acting perfect, he knows me!  God made us and he loves us just the way we are and he wants to spend time with us!