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Busy Lives & Restless Souls
house around me, I pause for a few minutes to be with God. Do I get interrupted? You bet! Is it loud at times? You bet! While it felt strange for me to do this when everyone was awake, my family, including my kids, honors this space and time for me to be with God. It may not feel like the deepest prayer or my best prayer, but it is prayer, and it serves as a way for me to create space for God within my day and center my life around God. I hope, too, that my kids seeing my husband and me take time to pray will serve as a model for them—that they will come to see this as a normal way of life. I do want to make one note here, though, about praying within our families. Sometimes when we commit to daily prayer, it ruffles a few feathers. People may not like the changes they see. A dear friend of mine can attest to this. When he made a commitment to his faith and prayer life, his family did not know what to do with him. They saw changes they did not at first understand. They were not on the same faith journey he was. Over time, they understood and respected what he was going through and began their own faith journeys, but the beginning of the process was hard for him. Sometimes we might find that our families inhibit us in our faith journey instead of support us. We have to make the tough choice of whether to continue on our faith journey when those closest to us are not supportive of it. Maybe they don’t understand what’s going on. Maybe they don’t like the transformation they see. Maybe our desire for a deeper relationship with God makes them uncomfortable because they feel guilty or self-conscious about their own lives and how they are or are not developing faith. Walking the path of faith, even when the people closest to us do not understand, might be the cost of discipleship. Sometimes the cost is walking a life of faith without the support of our families and loved ones. Over time, though, we hope they will come to see the fruits