Seeking God When You Feel Spiritually Dry (for Moms)
Sometimes we get so overwhelmed in the business of having little ones, that we can start to feel spiritually dry. If you feel you have lost the close connection you once had with God, I hope you can find encouragement here.
Sometimes I have felt close to God. Other times, especially in the season of littles and babies, of interruptions and tiredness in my Bible or quiet time, and all that goes with that, I have started to feel a bit spiritually dry. How can we get through this and keep growing in our relationship with God?
Remember That There are Seasons to Everything
Don’t give up if you feel spiritually dry. There are seasons, and no season lasts forever.
I never mean to say that we shouldn’t work to grow our relationship with God at all times. But just because you don’t have what you once had, doesn’t mean that you are doing things wrong. Sometimes in our hardest seasons we feel very close. Sometimes it’s okay to admit that we are experiencing winter. Everything feels cold and dry.
Just because of that it doesn’t mean that we should curl up under the blankets and do nothing. Take heart. As hopeless as it seems, spring will come again.
Comparing it to Marriage
Even though my husband and I have a good, strong marriage, there are times we can’t dedicate as much time to our marriage as we wish. We sometimes don’t feel the closeness as much in the baby season. Where I might like to greet him at the door when he comes home from work, there are times I can just call (or cry 🙂 “welcome home” over giving a cup of water to a little one, watching that supper doesn’t burn, and balancing a crying baby on my hip (and then promptly handing it over!)
Build a strong foundation in the easier seasons.
We don’t abandon our relationship in hard seasons. We know we have worked hard on a good, strong foundation in the times when we don’t have quite so much to do. That helps to keep us strong in the times when we can hardly dedicate time to our marriage.
The same can go for our relationship with God. Even though He is always the same available for us, He understands why we can no longer have an hour of quiet time alone with Him like we used to. He is not upset with us about it either.
It helps us if we have built that close relationship with God in the easier seasons. The strong foundation with help carry us through the spiritually dry seasons.
Seek God in small ways in this season.
In saying all this, I am not saying to just forget about seeking God in the baby seasons. My husband and I don’t quit working on our marriage just because we don’t have time like we did before. We just do it on whatever scale we can. It might just be quick goodbye kisses, telling each other snippets of our day while balancing babies, settling squabbles, and watching so the supper doesn’t burn, or talking while doing our work and projects after the little ones are all sleeping.
For now that may be pretty much all we can do, but it’s okay. We know we will do more together in times that aren’t so intense. Eventually things will settle enough that we will be able to sit down and talk awhile, or watch the stars together.
We can seek God in little ways now too. It can be simply turning our hearts to Him with a quick little “thank you” for the bouquets our girl brings us or the smiles from our baby. Listening to the audio Bible while folding laundry or nursing (put down the phone!), prayers done while washing dishes, or a few verses snatched here and there from an open Bible can be ways to seek God. It can even be a desperate prayer for help when you are overwhelmed. If you get a moment of still, turn your heart to Him.
Seek God, and in the dry seasons trust that he doesn’t scold us if we don’t have the time we once did, and if hormones and sleepless nights make us feel distant. This is not an excuse to abandon relationship, even though we don’t have the same amount of time to dedicate to Him.
I was going through a spiritually dry season some weeks ago. but I kept seeking Him, knowing the feeling of nearness would come back. One day I realized it had when the songs we were playing meant so much again. God is faithful.
God meets us where we are.
He meets us where we are, over dishes, laundry, and crying babies. He does not ask us to always spend an hour just with Him. When we have young ones (and other times too), He is gentle with us.
“He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” Isaiah 40:11
Save it for later!
Take courage!
“Mothers with courage; mothers who pray,
These are the kind the world needs today.
Mother who think, who study and plan;
Mothers who laugh as much as they can,
Having the gift that is better than money-
The habit of seeing that some things are funny.
Mothers whose faith never wavers or falters;
Mothers whose spirits the world never alters;
Loving the right and scorning the wrong;
Facing the problems of life with a song.
Mothers whose bravery transcends their fears;
Winning the battle with patience and tears;
Never submitting to weakness or sin—
Storming heaven’s gates till the children are in.
Mothers heroic, not guilty of whining;
Hands graced with service and faces with shining.
Mothers of purity, virtue and faith,
Steadfast in life and triumphant in death;
Looking beyond the dark pathway of sorrow,
Seeking a home in God’s joyous tomorrow,
Leading the children; pointing the way—
These are the mothers, the world needs today!
-Kathryn Blackburn Peck
(I could not find any copyright information to this poem, and so I share it because it blessed me. If I find information some day I can certainly update it here.)
You can also read more from an older mom on Our Life Homeschool about how it does get easier.
You might also be interested in learning more about praying mothers in the Bible.
