After we had our three kids, my prayer time got shorter and shorter and kind of disappeared in thin air. When the Holy Spirit comes and whispers in my ears saying, “Why don’t you pray now?” I will immediately say, “I’m not able to; can’t You see?” And the Holy Spirit asks, “Why can’t you?” I will say, “The children You gave me take all my time and energy and I have no strength left to pray and read the Word.” In a way, I was saying to Him, “If it was not for my children, I would have been praying and worshiping You; but since they are here, sorry, I can’t do that.”

If you are a very obedient child of God who follows God without arguing, I’m very jealous of you. I’m not like that. May He give me His mercy. I tend to argue with Him before I surrender to His Will. So, I disputed with God saying I couldn’t pray no matter what.

But before you blame me for bickering with God, let me tell you how I used to pray before these three musketeers took over my life.

I used to get up early in the morning, around 5am and be with the Word and Spirit of God, all by myself, praying, singing and worshiping God. Then after our bundle of blessings invaded my life, I couldn’t do that anymore. When I thought they were sleeping and began tip-toeing to head to the basement to pray, I hear one of them calling out for me. So, I said, “You know what, no more prayer until these people leave my house. I can’t pray! Period!”

Then I became the nastiest mother you can ever find. Forget my poor husband; his lovely wife turned into the meanest creature on this planet earth. So, I cried and cried before God and He said, “I am not going to let the kids grow in one day. Learn to grow in the middle of your new circumstances.” That was a foreign language for me; to pray and worship God while my kids were riding me as if I was a horse or something! (That is one of the craziest pictures I’m sharing with you today. My older son was the one who took the picture. They all went out and played on snow and I was knocked out. After I took their boots and jackets off, I lay down on the floor thinking that I would get a break. Oh, well, for them, they saw me as a horse to ride on. Yeah! That was my life.)

I didn’t know that I could pray and fellowship with the Holy Spirit wherever and whenever. So, instead of looking for that perfect environment I used to have with my God in the past, I learned to pray while my kids were climbing up on my head as if I was a mountain. I began treasuring to read one verse a day instead of reading four chapters of the Bible a day. Oh, how precious that one verse of the Bible was for me at that moment! It was like a cup of cold water in a parched and dry land. Amazingly enough, looking back now to those days, I can say this: I learned to memorize more verses during those seasons of my life than any other times in my life so far.

So, whether you are a mother with little kids; bedridden with sickness; or busy with school and work, don’t let anything separate you from spending time with the Holy Spirit. You can pray and read the Bible whenever and wherever. Just know this: You and I can’t live the Christian life apart from His Spirit working in us and His Spirit can’t work in us unless we abide to the vine daily through prayer and meditation of the Word. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”(John 15:5)