I love routines. I love the order and predictability they bring and I delight in managing my time well and getting things done. But, way higher on my list of things I love, right at the peak of it, are my seven- year-old niece and my four-year-old nephew. This is why it’s so difficult when I find myself staring into those pleading eyes, begging me to stay “un minutito mas” (just one more minute) so I can play with them. It’s even more difficult, quite literally, when they block the door to prevent me from leaving.
At that conflicting moment, I feel like I have to choose between two goods, one at the expense of the other. Do I go home after coming back from a five-day work trip or do I stay in a room full of toys “wasting time” playing with my niece and nephew?
If I go home, I’ll be able to successively check things off my to-do list. I’ll be able to unpack, fold the laundry, prepare lunch, get the weekly grocery list ready, and get ready for evening Mass. If I stay, the only thing I can accomplish is spending quality time with them and cherishing the moment.
It turns out, unsurprisingly, that my love for them is so strong that I usually end up sacrificing some of my time just to be with them a little longer. It’s in those times, when I covertly stare at them as they sway around their airplanes, dinosaurs, princesses, and stuffed animals, that I remain in awe of just how much I love them. And that’s when the prayers come in, prayers that God will bless them and keep them all the days of their lives.
Sometimes though, I’m just so busy that I truly can’t afford to stay with them “just a little longer.” Oftentimes, I end up leaving them with tears in their eyes as I heartily promise to come back to play with them as soon as I can. And I never renege on those promises. Why? Because I simply love them too much.
I often wonder if I love God this much. Do I cherish my time with him enough to stop what I’m doing and truly connect with him? While I spend my day offering everything to God, I realize that I could spend more quality time simply being with him, listening to his voice, and seeking his presence. I’m grateful for the opportunity to attend adoration, where I can sit and gaze at his beauty, feeling truly blessed by his presence. Yet, I recognize that unless I organize my day around this practice, it’s easy for it to fall by the wayside.
This is where establishing a prayer routine comes in handy. Do we sleep in another 15 minutes or use that time instead to read and meditate on God’s word? Making a daily appointment with God and creating a routine helps us prioritize the most important relationship in our lives. It can help us foresee and conquer obstacles throughout the day that might be competing for our attention.
Read André’s advice about silencing digital distractions to spend more time with God.
But, how do we keep prayer from turning into an extra item on our to-do list, another item that we can simply check off and move on with our day? By realizing that when we set time aside for prayer, the kind of prayer that moves us toward greater participation in the life of the Trinity, we accomplish both nothing and everything. We accomplish nothing in the sense of labor productivity in a fast-paced culture that can’t keep up with itself. Yet we accomplish everything in the spiritual realm of an apostolic life well-lived with Christ at the center. We accomplish everything when we build our lives around tuning into the One who “guide[s] our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79). And that is worth far more than just about any checkmark on our to-do list.
Adriana Rivera is an Associate Content Creator at the Evangelical Catholic. The Evangelical Catholic’s mission is to equip Catholics to live out the Great Commission.