Time with the Lord

I try to spend 15-20 minutes in devotions every morning. Sometimes I get out of the habit, and soon find myself spiritually weak. I am ashamed that I can spend 2 hours watching a movie, 30 minutes on the phone, or an hour surfing the net, but cannot spend 20 minutes with the Lord.

Here are a couple tips to help keep devotions going:

• Have a quiet, pleasant place set aside, just for devotions. Distract your kids. (Noah's morning cartoons work!)


• Have some coffee or tea to drink as you study. This seems to settle me in for a special time, as it would for an intimate visit with a friend.


• Have a notebook handy, for any epiphanies that may occur to you as your read the Word.


• Follow a line of study. You know right where to start, making it easy to just get going; no wasting time paging through to see what you might study that day. For example, I recently started reading through the gospels. I haven't done this for years. I am well-acquainted with many parts, but there are other parts that are new to me.

Here are two places I have my devotions. I prefer the outdoor location if weather is nice. The breezes and singing birds are a nice atmosphere to study by. Indoors, I have a place in my sunroom that I like. I can even close of the french doors to cloister myself more completely.