Studying God’s Word is crucial to our growth in the Lord. But that’s just one of the ways God grows us.
There are seasons of life when it’s really hard to get in the Word, like with a newborn baby for example. But that does not mean that we stop growing during those seasons, even if we are not able to spend as much time in the Word.
I realized something really important when staying at home for six months helping my mom with my two little brothers. At the time, my oldest brother was two years old and my youngest was only a few days old.
I was a full-time stay-at-home sister, cook, cleaning lady, and at times I even felt like a mom. Those were the first six months in my life that I didn’t have any formal education.
After graduating from high school I went to Germany for six months and did intensive German language courses in order to get the necessary language certificate to study at a German university. But the university only started six months from the time I got the certificate, so I suddenly had all this time on my hands!
It was obvious that my mom needed help with the two young kids, and so I just thought that it was God’s will for me to end up at home for six months to help my mom. In those six months, even though I did not have any formal education, I learned so much more than I had learned in 12 years of school!
I did not have a lot of time, but I tried to squeeze in my quiet time before the kids woke up in the morning. On some days they would wake up much earlier than expected, so on those days I just kind of had to have my quiet time during the day or during their nap time in the afternoon. But even though I did not have much time in that season to read the Bible, I learned so much and God taught me so much!
First of all, those six months when I did not have any formal schooling for the first time in twelve years was also the first time I had to practice selflessness pretty much 24/7. It was the first time I had to put the needs of other little human beings before my own.
It was the first time I was actually serving my family. I did not pursue any personal career or educational goals. I cooked, I cleaned, I played with my brothers, I put them to sleep, I fed them, I helped my mom with what she needed help with.
And even though I did not grow much career-wise in that period, I actually realized that I want to be a stay-at-home mom and that I didn’t really want to have a career outside of home anyway, at least not when my kids were young.
That was the time I realized that God was calling me to serve online. And it just made so much more sense to me after staying at home with my brothers to do something for a living that I can actually do from home. Online ministry made perfect sense since it would allow me to both stay at home with my future kids and still serve God by serving other people online.
I realized that children are a blessing and that I want to stay at home with them. I realized that being a mother is a high calling, and it’s also a big ministry opportunity. I realized that serving God is not always about doing big things for Him. It could just be serving my family. That’s meaningful, too.
Those six months were pretty much life-changing for me. God taught me so many things about life that I would have never learned in a school setting!
I believe that reading God’s Word and learning theology is very important. But I also know that even in the seasons of life when we only have a little bit of time in the Word, God can still grow us.
He can still teach us things about life. He can grow our character and help us to become more loving and serving. He can grow our wisdom and help us to see where He wants us to go next in life. He can cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in us as long as we cling to Him in those seasons.
And clinging to Him does not have to look like 3 hours of quiet time every day. It could be just meditating on the Scriptures throughout the day, praying, listening to God’s Word and other Christian podcasts. And God can use that to speak to us and to help us grow closer to Him.
Ultimately, the Christian life is not about learning all the theology we can learn or even learning all we can about God. It’s about getting to know God on that personal level, letting Him transform us more and more into His image, and letting Him use our life for His glory!
So even if you are in a busy season of life where you cannot spend as much time in the Word as you wish, that does not mean you are not growing in the Lord. Maybe God is using this season to mature you in different ways like helping you to cultivate a more godly character, enabling you to become wiser, or helping you to discover His will for your life.
What do you think is the purpose of the season of life you are in right now? What is God teaching you in this season?
