How to Do Personal Devotions With a Baby and Toddler
Every mom dreams of uninterrupted morning coffees, and peaceful time spent journalling or praying or being in the Word. Any mom with littles knows that this is not something easy to come by. In this phase of my life, my mornings are often spent with children in my hands rather than my Bible. I needed to find a more creative way for how to do personal devotions with a baby and toddler.Â
I didn’t even know where to start, as personal devotions was not something I was taught growing up. I knew I wanted to include Bible reading, prayer, and journalling. That felt like a lot to bite off in one chunk so I went back to baby steps and found a simple goal: read the Bible.
Did you know that if you read to 15 minutes of the Bible a day you can get through the whole Bible in a year? I learned that from an excellent book I read a while back. (Seriously one of the best books I’ve read on living a Christian life and that I referance often but I lent my copy out years ago and I miss it terribly and should really buy another copy!) If you are anything like me, that sounds way less intimidating than looking at that big fat Bible thinking, “I know I should read it but when can I find the time?”
So the first step to personal devotions was set: Read the Bible for 15 minutes each day
It was so easy and I felt great and mostly rocked it!
But then…
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The last few days I have been suffering from a terrible headache. I believe it was a side effect of mastitis and it even got to the point that, out of desperation, I took two extra strength acetaminophen, which I haven’t needed to take in… years and years. (In retrospect, I could have tried the peppermint essential oil that I have sitting in my cupboard). It helped take the edge off but the pain was still there. It hindered my ability to keep up with housework, play with the kids, and was made significantly worse when I read and write.
The thing about being a mom is that I don’t get any sick days. So now I am behind on my housework and haven’t spent as much time outside with the boys as normal.
I am also behind on my Bible reading.
I might as well be perfectly honest and tell you I was about two weeks behind anyway. I had recently given another pep talk to myself and seriously been trying to catch up though. I didn’t want to get even further behind!
My normal reading time had been in the rocking chair while nursing the baby down for his nap. (I use the term “nap” very loosely here because sleep is very challenging with him.) I held him a little longer than I needed too so I could read two days at a time. He had just started to get into the rhythm of napping at a semi-regular time but even the kids were thrown off by Mama’s sickness.
Once I got out of the rhythm of reading regularly I knew it would be tough to start up again
After a couple of days I reminded myself that the Bible app on my smartphone that I use to keep track of my reading plan has a wonderful feature: a British man with a soothing voice reads it out loud to you!
So I recommitted.
Then I wanted to find a way to listen while keeping my toddler’s hands busy. He needs my constant attention and interaction.
Typical toddler stuff.
So I grabbed his crayons and coloring book and he and I colored and listened. It wasn’t ideal for me because I kept getting interrupted by my toddler asking me for my crayon or what color he should make something but at least we were both getting some scripture in our heads. It is a good thing the baby was napping or I would also have been distracted by picking crayon out of his teeth.
I had been looking for a simple way to get more Bible reading in with my boys and now I think I found it. So I thank God for showing me another way to make His Word a part of our daily lives. I have a feeling we will be doing a whole lot more coloring in the future.
