I used to feel guilty, in the weeks and days leading up to Christmas, that I didn’t spend as much time sitting. As much time lingering, still and quiet on the couch in the presence of God.
But this phrase has been my go-to when the guilt starts to seep back in.
When the kitchen becomes your prayer room.
That’s it. It’s not even a complete sentence, but it brought me so much peace when it came.
This is the cycle. The closer to Christmas it gets, the longer my to-do list gets. As I cross one thing off, I add two more tasks. And the longer my to-do list gets, the farther away from my prayer room I get. And the farther away from my prayer room I get, guiltier I feel.
I regret what I’m “losing” in the busyness of preparing for Christmas. I would look longingly at my “prayer room” from my kitchen as I rolled dough for cinnamon rolls and baked for cookie trays, lamenting that I didn’t have time to get there.
Until the kitchen became my prayer room.
“You could always sleep a little less,” the guilt would always say. And it would follow it up with, “If you really loved God, that 30 minutes in the morning would be top priority every single day.”
Until I made my kitchen my prayer room.
I stopped trying to get up even earlier in an already busy season. I stopped waiting until I had a chunk of time to pray. And I began to have a conversation with God right where I was, up to my elbows in dough with my house in chaos and kids running everywhere.
We don’t have to be sitting on the couch alone in the stillness to connect with God. Let that sink in. Here, I’ll say it again.
WE DON’T HAVE TO BE SITTING ON THE COUCH ALONE IN THE STILLNESS TO CONNECT WITH GOD.
I noticed when my thoughts shifted from what I was losing to what was right in front of me, everything changed.
And when I made my kitchen, and my car, and my laundry room, and the grocery store my prayer room, I found that I spent even more time with the Lord than I did when I had chunks of time alone with Him in the morning.
So throw away the guilt. Toss out that preconceived idea of what it “should” look like. Talk to God wherever you are. In the stillness and in the car. In the prayer room and in the kitchen. He will meet you right there every single time.