Bible "Quiet Time" Envy

by: Melanie Moore

Maybe you've seen photos of the perfect Bible study "quiet time" on Instagram -- the soft-focus lighting, perhaps with a beautiful mug of coffee and a twinkling candle that smells like sugar cookies even through your phone, surrounded by a white cashmere blanket softer than the feathers of angels, and there in the middle, a beautiful Bible perfectly highlighted and color-coded with margin notes written in handwriting so neat, you wonder if it might be a font.... 

Then, perhaps you're like me, and look into the mirror during your "not so perfect" Bible quiet time to see last night's mascara creating a black eye that would make Rocky Balboa cringe, a Bible that is being held together by duct tape, and a flickering lightbulb that is on the brink of going out shining its light upon a notebook filled with messy handwriting and ripped pages. 

My quiet time is not very pretty. 

Most of the time, I'm a weepy or sleepy mess, begging the Lord for His help as I read His Word. My Bible study time is not usually even the first thing I do in the morning. I really want to be that person to wake up before dawn and read my Bible. However, to be honest, I hardly remember my own name before my first cup of coffee. Anything I read before that first sip normally doesn't stick around in my head very long.

It's totally fine if your Bible study quiet time is messy and imperfect too! God cares more about our desire to know Him than whether our Bible study time is beautiful to the eye.

Please hear me out -- there is absolutely nothing wrong with creating a beautiful space for Bible study and sharing that space with others! God is the Creator of beauty! I believe that sharing that beauty and love of Bible study through social media is actually a wonderful evangelistic space, and I know I have personally been so inspired by the believers I see online.

What I want you to know, though, is that is it okay if your Bible "quiet time" doesn't look like that, every day or any day.

Sometimes, I can get caught up in comparing my life to others (especially what I see online), and it's tempting for us to even do that with Bible study. Please give yourself permission to have time with God in whatever way that works best for you.

It may not be "Instagram-worthy", but what matters the most is what God is doing inside our hearts. The next time your coffee splashes onto your notebook filled with tears and messy handwriting as you study your Bible, just give yourself a smile. I'll be high-fiving you from here as we seek God together in the mess.

... even if it's after that first cup of coffee.