The Nourished Mom
Moms are masters of creatively feeding themselves. Sometimes I’m shoving crackers into a plastic baggie for the road, while other times I’m eating my food standing up as I put lunch on the table for my kids. Dinnertime is often the only time I sit down to eat.
When it comes to hunger, the point is that we eat. Because we must. We can’t function without feeding our bodies. As every mom knows, you can get by on thrown-together, quickly consumed and convenient snacks . . . for a while. But we also need to feed ourselves well. We need to savor meals, not just scarf down snacks.
Busy moms (and our kids) can get by on fast snacks and mini-meals for a time—but eventually our bodies beg us for something better. To operate, they need vitamins and nutrients, as well as a combination of protein, fat, and carbohydrates.
Our soul is similar: its health depends on both what we consume and how we consume it.
What Are You Consuming?
Let’s take a quick inventory, mom, of what your soul is regularly consuming. Jesus says that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Are you consuming God’s Word, or are you taking in other things that cannot really satisfy you?
Here are several diagnostic questions to help you think about your regular “diet”:
How have you seen technology’s influence become dangerous to your walk with God?
How has the enemy used distractions to keep you from God’s life-giving Word?[1]
Does the Bible feel overfamiliar to you and therefore boring? Do other forms of flashy entertainment seem more appealing?
Have the many voices of the world drowned out God’s voice in Scripture?
What do you desire most?
When we are tired and spent, it is all too easy to turn to “food sources” that are easy to consume, but that will not revive or nourish our weary hearts. Just as junk food won’t help my little kids grow, so the world’s unsatisfying ways will not strengthen us. And we moms need strength!
Instead, we can beg God to instill in our hearts a hunger for his life-giving, nourishing words. Only he can do this by his Spirit—but how does he do it? Through his Word. In other words, Scripture creates a deeper hunger for Scripture. The more we consume God’s words, the more we will desire them.
How Are You Consuming God’s Word?
Second, and equally vital, is how we are consuming God’s Word. Just as I can handle eating on-the-go for only a short time, so our souls can “snack on” Scripture only for a little while before they beg us for something more.
Nibbling on Scripture isn’t bad or wrong; in my case, literal snacking keeps me alive! We will have days and seasons when snacking on Scripture is our lifeline, and that is fine—but we don’t want it to be final. We want our snacking to make us hungry for the full, well-rounded meal, when we feast with our church family and then privately feed on the Lord in his Word.
Here’s the good (and relieving) news, Mom: there isn’t one right way to do this!
There are so many ways we can engage with our Bibles, whether we are in a sleep-deprived newborn season or one with more bandwidth. God does not prescribe a specific way to consume his words; rather, he commands proper priorities for the growth of our souls in him: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and [everything else you need] will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). Whether we are “snacking” on God’s Word or feasting, we want to find realistic, guilt-free ways to get in the Word and grow closer to Jesus.
One Method, Five Ways to Use It
So, here is one method you can use to consume God’s precious Word, along with several ways you might use it. The method is meditation—and I don’t mean the world’s idea of emptying your mind. By meditation, I mean filling your mind with God’s Word. The psalmist sings, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97).
Meditation means slowing down to enjoy what God has to say to us. We think about it, ask questions about it, apply it to our lives, and use it as a springboard for prayer. You might use Risen Motherhood’s ABIDE method; or you can ask questions like, “What does this passage tell me about God? Myself? The church, the world, the spiritual realm?”
So, with meditation as the method, here are five creative ways you might use it:
Read Scripture in the shower (insert a sheet of paper in an upside-down, gallon-sized baggie and tape it on the shower wall).[2]
Listen to a Scripture-saturated podcast.[3]
Write the first letters of words from a verse on your hand or a Post-it note (and try to memorize the verse based on the first letters).
Use devotional resources with your kids and ask questions about the reading.
Read the Bible one-on-one with a friend or neighbor.
Living Bread, Nourished Souls
Momma, the health of your soul depends on both what you consume and how you consume it. We need the living words of the living God! “For it is no empty word for you, but your very life” (Deut. 32:47). And Scripture is ours for the taking—living, breathing, and accessible to us, all because of Jesus.
May we savor the One who sacrificed everything so our souls can truly live.
[1] Mark 4:15
[2] Glenna Marshall, Everyday Faithfulness: The Beauty of Ordinary Perseverance in a Demanding World (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 58-59.
[3] I like Two Sisters and a Cup of Tea
This article is based on Help for the Hungry Soul: Eight Encouragements to Grow Your Appetite for God’s Word.
