Moms are notoriously bad at taking care of themselves. I am not advocating the “I deserve special treatment” or “it’s okay to go to the spa even if I don’t have the money for this pampering.” I just know that most moms put their needs behind the needs of all of their family member’s needs — and sometimes that is not a good thing.

I was reminded of the importance of taking care of my own needs today — by my physical therapist.

Many of you have heard my story of how I was rear-ended in January, had a tendon tear as result, and needed shoulder surgery. I had four and a half weeks of therapy, and then went on vacation for 2 weeks. Now I am back in therapy. When I went to my session today, I got three sheets of exercises I have to do at home every day, twice a day.

I have five kids plus two cousins that came to visit for a couple of weeks, and I am in charge of VBS — which is next week. Plus I have to do therapy twice a week, two doctor’s appointments next week, driving my daughter to work and volunteering, my husband is going out of town for 3 days, I head up two adult ladies Bible/book studies, and I am trying to get ready for school as I am the only teacher in a little school that has 7 grade levels next year — how am I going to do about 1 hour of therapy a day!!

But the therapist said to me, “You need to take care of yourself too.”

And I thought, “Yep, she’s right. I do.” I took my kids to doctor’s appointments yearly, but I skipped 3 years before I went. I need to do this therapy to get my mobility back — so it must be a priority, no matter how busy I am.

That made me think about my spiritual health as well. How often do we get so busy that we neglect our time with the Lord? Yet that is what we need to have true spiritual mobility in our spiritual walk!

It is something I know. I have been taught about the importance of reading my Bible and getting alone with the Lord daily ever since I was little. It was been a major theme in last year’s ladies book study, Becoming MomStrong. Our current ladies book study on the book Lies Women Believe also discussed this truth.

As I contemplated how I was going to get this therapy in twice a day — especially during VBS week, I quickly came to the conclusion that I would have to just get up earlier in the morning. I need to do it for my physical health. So why do I not do that for my spiritual health too? It is a spiritual battle daily against the flesh!

We know the example of Jesus:

He needed to meet with God to fulfill His task. How much more do we also need God’s help and enablement?

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. Mark 1:35

There are several verses that encourage us to meet with God every morning:

• Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee. Psalm 143:8
• I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words. Psalm 119:147 (ESV)
• My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Psalm 5:3
• Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14 (ESV)
• O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; Psalm 63:1
• But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. Psalm 59:16
• The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. Isaiah 50:4
• O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. Isaiah 33:2

So pray for me that I will get to bed early enough to wake up early — for my spiritual and physical exercise!

Do you wake up early to get in God’s Word? What do you do to help you to keep God’s Word a priority in your life.

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We took off last week from posting as we went up to Illinois to see both sides of our family. It was such a busy week!

We celebrated the Fourth of July with my husband’s side of the family by watching some fireworks on Wednesday, and we watched fireworks with my side of the family on Thursday. On Thursday morning, we attended our local parade with parts of both sides of the family!

The only bad part of the week was that my oldest had a bad cold that was very contagious, so almost all of us ended up getting it including some of the extended family.

Since we had to drive 20 hours both ways, I brought my computer and tried to get some work done for my adult Sunday School ladies class that I teach as well as the upcoming school year. My husband drove most of the way as we were able to break up the drive into 2-3 day shifts both ways, so I passed out snacks to the kids, helped navigate if needed, and studied during the down times.

In our adult ladies Sunday School, we are doing a study on the names of God.

Our main book is Lord, I Want to Know You by Kay Arthur. I co-taught a similar study before, but we did not use one main book. We used several books. Many of the books I liked just as well if not better than Kay Arthur’s book, but her book was nice to use in a book study group as it had questions for the ladies to do.

However, when I prepare for Sunday School, I go through all of the other books I have and include the information in my notes and on the handout.

Here are the books I have used for my study.

My favorite is listed first, but I liked all of them for different reasons. The last book was my least favorite. The 2nd and 3rd book from the bottom had only a little bit of information for each name, but I used that information to quickly find the key verse, other Scriptures that had that name of God, the meaning of the name, and an application or two.

• Trusting in the Names of God: Drawing Strength from Knowing Who He Is by Catherine Martin — I LOVE this book!! The first 12 chapters (or days of studies) are leading up to the individual names of God that she covers. Then she discusses 14 names of God in the book.
• Names of God by Marilyn Hickey — I liked this book. She includes 19 names of God, a few of which are not in most of the other books.
• Names Of God by Nathan Stone — I used different quotes from this book. There are 12 names of God included.
• Names of God by Ken Hemphill — I used this book for some names more than other names, but I was glad I had it. He includes 13 names of God in his book.
• Rose Bible Basics: Names of God & Other Bible Studies — I used this in making my worksheets. If I ever get all my worksheets on the blog, you may not want to buy it, but it does have Bible basics on many other topics such as the Beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, the Trinity, the Fruit of the Spirit, the Armor of God, the Names of Jesus, and more. Plus, Kay Arthur’s book has 15 names of God it covers and this book has about 20 names of God plus some other interesting facts not covered in Kay Arthur’s book.
• Names of God: Fully Illustrated–More Than 250 Names and Titles of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit by George W Knight — each name has about 1-2 paragraphs written about it. It shared the first time the name was used in Scripture, sometimes some context about the name, what it meant, and usually an application. If you want a book with all the names of God, this is the book to get.
• The Names of God: God’s Name Brings Hope, Healing, and Happiness by Lester Sumrall is the book I used the least. I think his writing style just wasn’t my favorite. If I didn’t have time to look at all of the books, his was the one I would skip. There are 11 names of God.included in this book.

Studying the names of God is a rich study as you realize the many attributes of God, how awesome He is, how much He loves you, and how much He has done and continues to do on a daily basis for you. It also helps your prayer life as you can call on the different names of God for each circumstance. Your relationship with the Lord will grow as you get to know Him better by studying His names. I also have loved to see how Jesus manifests Himself as God in the New Testament by living out those names of God that are discovered in the Old Testament.

Next week, I’ll share some of the worksheets that I have made for the names of God we have studied in our Sunday School class.

I have to get to bed! It’s been a long day of travel, but I pray you all had a great Fourth of July celebration and that you are getting to know God better in your studies!

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