Stewarding our Time with the Lord

I want to take a minute before we begin today’s topic, to share with you what this thread is not about.

It is not about being religious.
It is not about checking the box.
It is not about who is better at planning.
It is not about the perfect time.
It is not about guilt, shame, or condemnation.

What this thread is about is helping us women learn how to steward our time properly, to better manage our time. Doing so then reaps a beautiful harvest of our balanced time to serve our Lord, our spouse, our home, our children, our jobs in a cheerful manner.

We all are given 24 hours in a day. This is quite a bit of hours given. Yet, we still find ourselves under. Balancing our time properly during the day helps us to have a better nights rest come night.

You may be asking, how can we steward our time for the day? What does this look like? Is it possible with children, a job, homeschooling, homesteading, a newborn, a home that needs cleaning? Very much so!

To begin a day with a cheerful heart, I personally have found it to be more cheerful, my heart more serving, when I give Christ my first in the mornings.

I was never a morning bird. It was too hard for me to wake up. Until the Lord convicted my heart in the most gentleness, yet stern way. As a Father loves his child, directing them in the way, so our Father does to us, His beloved children. He didn’t need me. He wants me. He wanted me to give him my first before the dawn breaks.

As a wife and mom of seven, I too, have a home to clean, chores to be done, homeschooling to be scheduled in the day. But what this wife and mama truly needs is her time spent well with her Lord.

Let’s learn together sister in-today’s post, on how to steward our time with the Lord.

Can we take a minute together sister and look at your schedule?

What does it look like right now? Is it organized? Is it structured? Do you have regular appointments you need to tend to daily? Do you find yourself overwhelmed? Stressed out? Maxed out?

Now take a look around you.

How is your home life? Is it clean (no it doesn’t have to be spotless but tidy). Are you falling behind on home chores? Is it grace filled?

Take a look at your marriage. How is your time with your spouse? Is your spouse getting enough time with you? Are you giving him your full attention or the left overs from the day? Do you welcome him with open arms and a joy filled attitude when he walks through the door?

Again, there is no condemnation in this post, but more of let’s get down to the nitty gritty and get this in the right place.

The Lord had to teach me to rise up early in the mornings to meet Him. Showing me that my heart needed Him. He also taught me to “structure” my days, yet, hold them loosely. Now mind you, I was never one to “schedule.” I lived day by day, with no planning. But the Lord showed me this is not okay to do. To live a structured life (holding the schedule loosely of course) is living wisely. He teaches us to number our days, for that gives us a heart of wisdom.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:12 NKJV

This is not saying for us to hold tight to our planning and making sure we achieve them in our own accord.

This is not saying every single thing jotted down must have the check box, and if not, we are failures. (this is a lie in case you need a reminder)

This is not saying for us to hold so loosely that we become lazy within our planning.

This is simply stating to be balanced in our time with each day given from the Lord. If we can balance our day, our time given, by placing Jesus first, we can then steward our marriage, our parenting, our home, well. (more on this in the coming weeks)

Jesus sets this example for us by meeting His father early in the morning before the dawn breaks. As women who walk His ways, we must learn to follow His steps. He rises up to go out and pray. Prayer is important. It’s communion. A divine communication in the heavenly realm, with our Father, allowing the Holy Spirit to come and prepare us for the day ahead.

“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”
Mark 1:35

This isn’t saying we must do all the deep dive bible study early in the mornings. What it is saying is to communicate, pray to the Father and wait for the Father to communicate with you. Allow scripture to speak to you by opening up your bible and reading in Psalms, or the Gospels.

I schedule my days around God when before I would schedule God in my days. But scheduling God in my days I quickly saw how that failed and how my relationship with God didn’t grow. It was stagnant. It was stale. If I truly wanted a deeper meaningful relationship with God, and if I truly loved Him as my mouth proclaimed to say, then I must give Him my first, not leftovers or last.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Matthew 6:33

Since the Lord lovingly and graciously showed me how to begin my days by waking up early to be with Him, I don’t regret not one bit of it. It has impacted my family, and me, in ways that only He could have done. He revealed to me so many hidden treasures that I hide within my heart. Was it hard to do? Absolutely. It was a challenge. But a challenge that was worth pushing through. Now you ask? It comes natural. Even with a newborn. And sister, if you have a newborn also and it is hard to do, I have a podcast on Seeking Jesus in the Newborn Stage. You can find that episode on any podcast platform by searching She Walks His Way Podcast.

If we want to be women who walk in His ways, we must learn from the example set before us. Jesus. We must give Him our first before we serve the world and everyone else. Serving Him is an honor. Giving Him our first is an honor. It is a relational deepening that occurs in us. If we want to be women who steward our time well, do so by placing and meeting with Jesus first. You can start off by 15 minutes a day. Then work your way up.

When we place Jesus first, all else follows.
When we place the world first, everything falls.

The world was never meant to be first. Only Jesus. To become better stewards of our time with the Lord, we must pushback our selfishness of wanting sleep, our selfishness of choosing work, or choosing our phone first, and instead, choose Jesus.

If you are like me, I had to set boundaries by placing a timer on my phone. At 8pm it goes into do not disturb mode and wakes up at 8am. Texts, emails, notifications will be hushed during downtime. It is blocked time from any phone distractions so come early morning, I can focus my time with God before I begin my day.

Doing this, I can serve my family well and better steward my time the rest of the day. Here is an example of how I structure my days. Of course it isn’t always this way as I hold my days loosely in the Lords hands.

5:45am-7 I meet with God with my cup of coffee in hand everyday before my children wake up. I do use this time to dive in scripture and to pray over my husband, my children, and our day. 

8-8:30 I make breakfast for everyone. 

We clean up, make sure we are dressed and begin our homeschool after breakfast. Now each day differs because on Tuesdays and Wednesdays we have therapy for our boys at 9 in the morning. So on those days I make sure to have us fed around 7:30, to give me time to get everyone ready and out the door to head out.

9:30 we begin to homeschool

12 is lunch. We clean up and take a break. I use this break to tidy up the house a bit

1:30ish we pick back up on homeschool or enjoy being outside (depending on the weather)

4-4:30 I prep dinner to ensure dinner is done by 5:15-5:30 when my husband arrives. He loves a warm meal and I do try my best. But of course, in this season with a new baby, it tends to get put off til 6 for it to be done. And that is okay. 🙂 

We all clean up dinner, put things away, and enjoy the rest of the evening with one another. Night time is my time with my husband and we get to speak about our day, laugh about our day, talk about our future, or simply take a walk outside on our land enjoying the view and fresh breeze. 

Each day sometimes differs depending on what is going on that day. But I can tell you, just structuring our time around God, not the other way around, has been very rewarding.

Reflection Questions

What has taken up your day away from the Lord?

What do you choose first thing in the morning?

What is the most challenging for you?

How can you restructure your day?

How can you place Jesus first and spend time with Him before the day begins?

Now it’s your turn

Get a paper and pen out. Write out things that are absolutely needed in your schedule, such as dr appointments, therapy appointments, homeschooling, work, etc.

Now begin to pray and ask the Lord what needs to go (things that are not needed and are taken time away from you). This could be too much TV, too much phone scrolling, too much going into town, etc.

Pray and ask the Lord to help you structure out your days. Ask Him to help you plan out the days ahead. Ask Him how he would like for your day and week to look. And of course, hold this loosely. Never hold tight to it.

Let Us Pray

“Heavenly Father, we come to you and ask for your help in or day. Align our day with your will, and help us to better manage our days ahead. Teach us to number our days Lord so that our hearts may gain a heart of wisdom. Teach us how to better spend our time with you and structure our days around you, not you fit in our schedule. Grant me a heart that desires to spend time with you before the world and keep me from distractions that pull and tug my heart away from you. Teach me Lord, for I am willing to listen. I am here, waiting, for you to show me how to structure my days. Meet me in the mornings when I rise, and speak to me Lord in those times. I thank you for your Son, Jesus, who set the example for me to follow, by coming to you in prayer in the early morning, waiting to hear from you. In those times, I ask that you deepen my heart to knowing you more and may our relationship grow wide and deep in those precious times spent together. In Jesus name, amen.”

First post on Stewardship: The Simplicity of Stewardship Series

For more related content see: Building Your Quiet Time in the Word Blog Post