Ever feel like you are on a roller coaster? Climbing higher during sermons on Sundays and then crashing into the pit of bland Christianity sometime around Monday morning?
Sometimes our faith can feel like a temporary high with feel-good emotions yet be void of the substance that keeps us going on Monday mornings—like a sugar rush, crashing when difficult things happen, laundry stacks or exams challenge our intellect.
Could it be that true faith requires daily nutrients, constant care and intentional feeding?
So, how do you stay unswervingly faith-filled, when (let’s face it) we can all be painfully busy? How do you prevent faith from crashing when you are at the water cooler Monday morning, at home refereeing screaming children, or required to study or work in an atmosphere that is anything but holy?
Even busy women don’t have to let their faith starve or their Christianity crash like a fast-going roller coaster ride going downward. Thankfully, through technology and our ability to access encouragement at our fingertips, our faith can daily grow stronger, although the world can pull at us and time can be a commodity we just don’t have enough of.
Although caring for our spiritual health can take a little conscious planning and intentionality, there are strategies that can keep you going throughout the week.
1. Care for body, mind and spirit simultaneously. Often we can compartmentalize our lives, but what if we merged exercise with challenging our minds and our strengthening our spirits? Try walking, running or going to the gym while listening to worship music, a downloaded sermon or an audio version of the Bible.
2. Utilize the time doing chores, errands and daily duties. Often while doing daily, mundane tasks, our minds can drift, and we can spiritually crash. But what if we listened to worship music, sermons or the Bible or even prayed over each person or task we were doing instead? How might our perspective change? How might our “ho-hum” mentality driving us into a pit of disdain turn to a spirit of gratitude and praise instead? What if we read the Bible to our kids, had worship music playing while cooking dinner or went to bed marinating in faith-filled books on CD instead of plunking in front of the TV each night? Wouldn’t we be closer to God at the end of the day?
3. Let the car be your sanctuary. It can be so easy to get stuck thinking we can just praise, pray or get close to God at church. But Scripture tells us we are the temple of the living God. Some of the best prayer times can be during our commute or while picking up kids from sports or school. Try audibly praying, worshipping or spending commute time listening to faith-filled books, the Bible or Christian books from our iPods or CDs.
4. Get Scripture texts or tweets. Go online and request Scripture be sent to your phone or email daily as texts or tweets. You will be amazed at how God will use these to speak to you daily.
5. Grab some earbuds. There are many excellent, encouraging and biblical e-books. Grab some earbuds and download the application to listen to some good teaching while you work, run errands or just plain relax at the end of the day.
6. Serve. You might be surprised at the benefits in service. Teaching your child’s Sunday school class, reading kids the Bible or choosing a Christian nonprofit to do service hours or an internship can ignite the flame of faith inside you. We often most grow our faith, become sanctified and connect with Christ not when we are “getting” but when we are giving our lives away.
Resources:
Free sermons downloaded online: oneplace.com/downloads or sermonsaudio.com.
Free Christian radio online: jango.com or pandora.com.
Free Bible Verse tweets: twitter.com/Daily_Bible.
Free daily Bible verses for phone: bible2mobile.com.
Bible online for the hearing impaired: bible.is/deaf.
Audio Bible in 746 languages: faithcomesbyhearing.com.
Free audio Bible: spiritlessons.com/bible.
Free Christian downloadable e-Books: globalchristians.org/ebooks or click here.
Reprinted with permission from Missional Women.
Jen Avellaneda and her husband have been married 20 years and have parented 15 kids and counting—12 foster, one adopted and two biologicals. Her multiracial family reflects her passion for unity, desire for faith without walls and missional mindset to share both the gospel and the power of redemption to a world desperately needing the hope found in Jesus Christ. Jen and her husband have led in a variety of ministries, including prayer, small groups, children’s and women’s. She advocates for the orphan as a board member for the nonprofit A New Song and loves doing missions work internationally, along with her family.
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