My birthday--and Years of Habits

This is a rustic yard decoration the children got me for my birthday.

I loved it!

 It's hard to believe Jonathan turned 50 this year and I am a year older!

Below is a book that is quickly becoming one of my favorites, that I also got for my birthday.

(Literally! I bought some books at a half price sale at a thrift shop on my way home from taking Crystal to the airport, and gave them to the kids to wait for my birthday. I figured if I was going to have any birthday gifts, I  might have to buy  my own! :)

I could hardly stop reading this book Sunday, and read more of it late at night when I couldn't sleep. This book is about a Scandinavian pastor's wife who had seven children and pastored Scandinavian congregations from New York to Canada to  Chicago. She was such an amazing woman, skilled in grace and humility. But one thing that encouraged me was that she always had everyone take a nap in the afternoon after lunch! Even she lay down for 30 minutes and her husband went to his study.
Then she got up and that was her Bible and prayer time.

And then she put on coffee to perk, which signaled to everyone that they could get up and meet the second half of their day!
Maybe you always have your devotions without fail first thing in the morning, and certainly we've heard this preached. But I've discovered more and more mothers of large families who could not find time for devotions except in the afternoon or other times of day besides morning.
Reading this lifted a huge load off my back.
I feel so unable to meet all the demands, and having my devotions often feels like just another demand--especially if I end up being just a second rate Christian for having my devotions in the afternoon or evening instead of morning!

I hope the following thoughts from DesiringGod.org along this line of habits and being realistic will be an encouragement to any mother or real person reading this:

  "Habits Are Not One-Size-Fits-All"

"Perseverance in the Christian life is dynamic. It looks different based on your personal experience and wiring and proclivities, your season of life and era in history, and your current community.

It should be freeing to know that you’re not called to live someone else’s spiritual routines. You’re not called to persevere by precisely the same on-the-ground habits as your heroes. Habits are person-specific, and God gives us flexibility in how the timeless, unchanging principles of his means of grace intersect with our timely, changing, personalized habits in life.

One way to say it is we don’t have to wear Saul’s armor...You know the story in 1 Samuel 17, when David stepped forward to fight Goliath...

How will you fight the giant who wants to keep you from persevering in the faith? You don’t have to wear another man’s armor, but you do have to find your way to wield the weapon of the Spirit."

"Good habits protect what’s most important. They keep us on the track of perseverance even when we don’t feel like persevering. They help us access the channels of God’s ongoing grace in the times we need it most (often when we don’t feel like it), and so preserve and keep our souls. Good spiritual habits keep us in God’s word, and in prayer, and among God’s people, even as we ride the emotional ups and downs of life."