The following is another excerpt from Climbing by Rosalind Goforth, which I have mentioned the last couple of days and many times before. This book shares a very human view of a woman after God’s own heart who also was “of like passions” as we are.
A devoted Christian missionary, Mrs. S, was holding a series of special meetings for our Christian women at Changte. On one occasion, this dear woman, who had no children, told me that I could never have the peace and joy I longed for unless I rose early and spent from one to two hours with the Lord in prayer and Bible study.
I longed intensely for God’s best — for all He could give me, not only to help me live the true Christian life but also for peace and rest of soul. So I determined to do what Mrs. S. had advised.
The following morning, about half-past five o’clock, I slipped as noiselessly as possible out of bed. (My husband had already gone to his study.) I had taken only a step or two when first one and then another little head bobbed up; then came calls of, “Mother is it time to get up?”
“Hush, hush, no, no,” I whispered as I went back, but too late; the baby had wakened! So, of course, the morning circus began an hour too soon.
But I did not give up easily. Morning after morning I tried rising early for the morning watch, but always with the same result. So I went back to the old way of just praying quietly — too often just sleeping! Oh, how I envied my husband, who could have an hour or more of uninterrupted Bible study while I could not. This led me to form the habit of memorizing Scripture, which became an untold blessing to me. I took advantage of odd opportunities on cart, train, or when dressing, always to have a Bible or Testament at hand so that in the early mornings I could recall precious promises and passages of Scripture.
In another place she writes of finding at the last minute that the woman who was supposed to speak at a certain function couldn’t, and she was asked to. She nursed the baby with one arm while looking through her Bible and jotting notes as she could with the other. When Jonathan came through and saw her, he wondered how she could possible get ready for a meeting under such conditions in so short a time. She replied that if she’d had hours to work on it, she would have taken it, but she trusted God would give her just what she needed in the time available.
A few pages later she writes that sometimes she got out a concordance and her Bible to study out something which she needed help on at the time. She ended up with forty outlines resulting from her studies which the Lord used first in her own life, and then in talks to other ladies.
I expanded on this theme of trying to have devotions with young children in the house in an earlier post titled Encouragement For Mothers of Young Children. I went through quite a spiritual slump at one point due to a lack of spending time with God, and He showed me some ways to do so at that super-busy time of having little ones that wasn’t my usual routine, wasn’t even a setting where I would normally “get anything” from his Word, but He enabled me in those times. I hope perhaps it will be an encouragement to some of you in that stage of life – or any stage.
For the 31 Days writing challenge, I am sharing 31 Days of Inspirational Biography. You can find others in the series here.
