It's been a while, hasn't it? It seems like every time I tried to sit down and write something, whether for this blog or my other stories, something comes up. Homework, sports, friends....brothers, there are a million things that drag us away from things that we want to do. Even now, I'm trying to study for a Physics test (seriously?! I'm in 8th grade!) while writing this and listening to music. Both of my brothers won't get home until around seven, and they have to go to bed at like 8:30--now where do we fit God in on all of this?
God says there isn't anything wrong with being busy, since he says in Titus 2:5, "to be self controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God." In fact, he encourages us to spend our time wisely. The key word there, however, is wisely. It gets really easy for us to spend a lot of our time just laying around when we should be doing homework or reading the Bible--something that will help us in our lives.
Try to set aside a time, no matter how short or long, to be with God. Whether you're currently working through a devotional book, reading the Bible a chapter or two at a time, or just praying, anything works. God isn't picky! It's still time that you're choosing to spend with God, and it's bound to help your relationship with him immensely.
One of the hardest things, though, is to FOCUS! Right when I was about to fall asleep, my dad loved to come into my room and scream "SLEEP!" Basically, all it did was make me jump out of bed and run after him, completely defeating the purpose of his words. Just like that, my telling you to focus isn't going to help you any if you don't choose to listen. Maybe this is the time when you are trying to do your Devo time. If so, please return!
Every night, I set my timer for fifteen or thirty minutes (because my mom yells at me if I spend too long before I go to bed) and I read my Bible and then write in my Prayer Journal. It's kind of replaced my diary, and I've really loved keeping it. I still write it kind of like a diary, but I add in the whole ACTS shebang: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. It's really helped my relationship with God, because I've learned to talk to him as a friend and a God, rather than just the latter. Before, I'd always thought of God as the one to be feared and very formal with, and even though God is like that, he's also supposed to be a friend to us. If you don't have a prayer journal, I highly recommend it.
So as long as you don't squeeze God out of your life, being busy is a good thing! If David had been busy and had gone off to war like most of the rest of the Israelite men, he never would have had an affair with Bathsheba. When we have too much spare time, our sinful minds will tend to wander places where they shouldn't, thinking about people in bad ways or other mean and terrible things.
