The Abundant Wife

This morning I struggled to get out of bed.  Last night I stayed up until 11:15pm on the computer (a habit I’d like to break) and then I had a night full of interruptions.  Oliver woke up at 3:30am, so after tending to him I had a hard time falling asleep again.  Evelyn roused too, and slept fitfully until 5:30am when Brad changed her diaper and brought her to me.  Again, I had trouble falling asleep after putting her back to bed.  So when the alarm rang at 6:30am I hit the snooze twice before getting up.

Then Naomi and Oliver both showed up at the door, wanting to come along for my morning walk.  I chose Naomi since Oliver has been getting up almost every day to come with me.  I grabbed a roll of yellow duct tape and 10-15 posters Brad made advertising our next youth ministry club.  Naomi is my most outgoing child, so she talked during our entire walk.  We stopped by the school’s front office, and dropped off a couple posters there.  We also taped posters to the traffic light posts around the school.  Finally we arrived at the coffee shop, and I ended up chatting with another woman who was there with her toddler and her mother.

So, needless to say, I didn’t get much praying done today.  I prayed for students I saw unloading from school buses, and being dropped off by their parents, and I prayed for the students who will attend our next club.  However, I wasn’t discouraged.  I reminded myself that if I wait for perfect conditions, I will never get anything done.  Ecclesiastes 11:4 says that “Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.”  Forming a new habit is difficult, but what matters is that I keep trying even when it’s hard.

What circumstances make it difficult for you to develop a habit of prayer?  What can you do to avert those circumstances?