Devotionals by Jill Briscoe

Afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray. - Mark 6:46

As a young mother with three preschool children, a husband who traveled, and responsibilities outside the home, I found an unlikely oasis. My children’s playpen stood “in the middle of the muddle.” So I put the kids out, climbed in, and spent fifteen blissful minutes a day talking with God. I used that time alone with him to sort out the muddle and ask him to help me as a wife and mother be of maximum worth to him.

After our eldest son was grown, he told me that he and his sister had learned to leave me alone when they saw me in their playpen with my Bible on my lap and a cup of English tea in my hand. “Why was that?” I asked him.

“Because we came to appreciate the fact that you were a whole lot nicer mother when you got out than when you got in,” he replied.

On one occasion, after teaching and feeding five thousand men and their families, Jesus sent the people home, and “afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray” (Mark 6:46). Jesus always made time to be with his Father.

If we would make sure our life is of maximum worth to our family, we can start by giving the maximum time possible to develop our relationship with God. By all means, make a habit of going “into the hills by yourself” to pray, but also take time out somehow, somewhere, in the middle of the muddle. You’ll be a whole lot better because of it!

For Further Study: Mark 6:30-56

Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.

SPECIAL OFFER