Something happens in late May. The school schedule loosens, the mornings shift, kids are home, vacations start, and the routine that held everything together from September to May falls apart in the span of a week!
And for a lot of moms in this season, our quiet time goes with it.
Summer has a way of dissolving structure, and when the structure disappears, the habits that depended on it tend to disappear too.
But it doesn't have to be that way! Here are five shifts that can help your quiet time survive the season:
1. Untie it from a fixed time
Most quiet time habits are anchored to a specific window. 6 a.m., before the house wakes up. Or right after school drop-off. The problem is that summer erases those windows. Kids sleep in on different days, wake up early on others, and the morning you counted on being yours is no longer predictable.
The fix is to separate the habit from the hour. Instead of "6 a.m. quiet time," think "15 minutes before the loudest part of my day begins." Some days that might be morning. Other days it might be naptime or after bedtime. What matters is that the habit stays flexible enough to move with the day rather than break when the day doesn't cooperate.
2. Make it shorter than you think it needs to be
I've been tempted before to believe that a quiet time only counts if it reaches a certain length. Thirty minutes. An hour. Something substantial enough to feel like it mattered.
But a five-minute quiet time is often the difference between a me that spends time in the Word and a me who doesn't. Don't put pressure on the lengthy of time. Give yourself permission to let five minutes be enough, especially in a season where margin is hard to come by.
3. Keep everything in one place
One of the reasons quiet times fall apart during travel and schedule changes is that the materials get scattered. The Bible is on the nightstand, the journal is in a bag somewhere, the reading plan is bookmarked on a phone that's currently being used to navigate to the beach...
Put everything in one spot. A Bible, a journal, and a pen, together, in the same bag or on the same shelf. When sitting down to spend time with God requires zero setup, the barrier to starting drops to almost nothing. This is actually why the Quiet Time Companion was designed the way it was! It has everything in one place, including a reading plan. All you need is your Bible and a pen.
4. Follow a plan instead of figuring it out each morning
Decision fatigue is real, and summer amplifies it. When every morning starts with "what should we do today" and "what's for lunch" and "who needs to be where," adding "what should I read in the Bible" to the list of open questions is sometimes the thing that tips the scale toward skipping it altogether.
A reading plan removes that question entirely. You open to today's reading and begin. No decisions. The plan holds the structure so your brain doesn't have to.
If you've been meaning to start one, this free Bible Reading Plan runs from now through December and walks through the most foundational books of Scripture in short daily readings. It was built for seasons like this!
5. Let your kids see it
For those of you who send your kids to school, summer provides more overlapping hours with your kids than almost any other season. Instead of waiting for a moment alone, try reading Scripture at the kitchen table while they eat breakfast. Pray out loud in the car. Let them see that time with God is a normal part of the day.
You might be surprised at the questions they ask. And you might find that the habit sticks better when it's shared!
Happy Summer!
Summer will rearrange your schedule. That's what summer does! But it can't rearrange the faithfulness of God. He is not waiting for September to meet with you again. He is available today, in whatever pocket of time this season allows, and He will be there tomorrow in the next one. The rhythm might look different for a few months, and that's ok. Use this challenge as an opportunity to grow in both grace and discipline.