When Motherhood Changes Your Bible Study Time

I had plans for what my life would look like when my baby came. When we first brought him home, I spent one of his naps creating an hour-by-hour schedule for our weeks. Mondays look like this, and on Tuesdays I will do this, etc. Each day was blocked out with writing, reading, cleaning, studying, and space for the frequent nursing and naps. I can hear the well-seasoned mothers laughing—I quickly learned that babies don’t naturally conform to schedules. Levi didn’t wake up and go to sleep based on what I wrote in my agenda. Not only that, waking up every two hours in the night left me without the brain capacity or energy to get up in the still dark hours of the morning to study scripture for an hour like I used to.

I struggled to find what I deemed to be adequate time in scripture with the tumbling of my “perfect” schedule. Meanwhile, I was still trying to figure out this new world of motherhood, breastfeeding and supplementing extra breastmilk through syringes, sneaking in sleep when I could, and throwing meals together in between. Rather than hours spent over God’s word, I curled up in bed at night to read a few chapters while guilt raided my heart.

Moms at any stage can easily fall into the lie that says we must study the Bible a certain way, everyday. Though Bible study is essential to the Christian life, we must guard against Bible study legalism.

Read the rest of this article on Risen Motherhood.