This morning I woke up in a hotel. We will leave in a few hours to finish our trip. I was hoping to find a quiet place, but there isn’t one. My husband woke up when I did and turned on the news. I went to the lobby to get coffee and the TV was on. There was no place to find peace and quiet. And then while drinking my coffee and opening up my “Mornings With Jesus 2017” devotional I read today’s devotion. The Lord truly gives you what you need to hear.

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For many years I had a daily quiet-time routine of Bible reading and prayer, and it was actually quiet. My older kids were in high school and college, and my husband was working. I enjoyed the alone time with Jesus. Then we felt Jesus’s tug to adopt and things changed. With first a baby, and then lots of little ones, there was not much alone time. I tried getting up even earlier, but when I did, the kids did too. And when I tried to read and pray after they went to bed, I found myself falling asleep.

It was my oldest daughter, Leslie, who pointed out that the irony of Luke 9:18, “Now it happened that as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him. And He asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’” Jesus was praying alone and His disciples were with Him. 

I think it’s a fallacy that we need quiet time to truly connect with Jesus. These days I often read my Bible while the kids sit around me watching cartoons. I pray as I’m folding laundry. I sing praise songs as I’m cooking spaghetti. Like Jesus, I pray alone while my children are with me. If we wait for the perfect circumstances before we meet with Jesus, we’ll never find it. Jesus is with us always. We can find Jesus at the kitchen sink, under a blanket fort, and while sorting socks.

Jose Lozano is quoted as saying, “I don’t pray for God to take my problems away, I pray only for God to give me the strength to go through them.” And these days I don’t pray for Jesus to take the noise away, I simply ask that He be with me in the midst of it.–Tricia Goyer

This morning there was no quiet, but I asked Jesus to meet with me here in the midst of the noise. And then I turned to this page in my devotional. He reminded me that He is always with me. I don’t always get to have quiet. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thess 5:16-18) This morning I am grateful to be where I am with my husband, even when he watches the news loudly. In a few hours we will be with two of our kids and two of our grandsons. Tomorrow, our daughter will join us with her fiance and our other grandson. It will be even noisier, and Jesus will still be with me. Thanks be to the Lord!