So, I was sitting and trying to read yesterday while my boys were playing a video game (didn't happen quite as I liked as they kept needing assistance, but I tried 
). I was reading Simply Pray by Erik Walker Wikstrom
, which is an inspirational book in and of itself. But, something really struck me as I was reading in regards to this thread. He was talking about scheduling time to pray during the day as an appointment with God - instead of putting "prayer time" on the calendar/day planner, that if it is written as an appointment with God then one might be more likely to follow through. Then, he said to look at your life *as it is right now* and find time to fit in prayer. (By the way, substitute whatever spiritual practice you wish to incorporate for prayer if wanted.) He said if you try to fit prayer into your life as you want it to be, it won't happen; rather you need to be realistic and look at your every day obligations and see where you can fit your desired practice in that framework. For me, that was very important because I often get caught up in the ... "I wish I did x, y, and z in my days instead of doing a, b, and c." So, reading that it's okay to keep things as they are now and seeing where I might be able to carve some time within my normal day for prayer really helped. I started realizing that maybe in the afternoon when the boys are enjoying some TV time I might be able to slip away into my room for even just 10-15 minutes.
But what I think I liked even better was when he began to speak of spiritual practice/discipline as being like the act of meditation. He said that the real act of meditation was one of getting distracted by life, noticing the distraction, and choosing to return to meditation - without recrimination and without condemnation. That you just gentle recognize when you have become distracted by life and you make a decision to return to your practice. It's been busy around here, but I wanted to share that.
). I was reading Simply Pray by Erik Walker Wikstrom, which is an inspirational book in and of itself. But, something really struck me as I was reading in regards to this thread. He was talking about scheduling time to pray during the day as an appointment with God - instead of putting "prayer time" on the calendar/day planner, that if it is written as an appointment with God then one might be more likely to follow through. Then, he said to look at your life *as it is right now* and find time to fit in prayer. (By the way, substitute whatever spiritual practice you wish to incorporate for prayer if wanted.) He said if you try to fit prayer into your life as you want it to be, it won't happen; rather you need to be realistic and look at your every day obligations and see where you can fit your desired practice in that framework. For me, that was very important because I often get caught up in the ... "I wish I did x, y, and z in my days instead of doing a, b, and c." So, reading that it's okay to keep things as they are now and seeing where I might be able to carve some time within my normal day for prayer really helped. I started realizing that maybe in the afternoon when the boys are enjoying some TV time I might be able to slip away into my room for even just 10-15 minutes.But what I think I liked even better was when he began to speak of spiritual practice/discipline as being like the act of meditation. He said that the real act of meditation was one of getting distracted by life, noticing the distraction, and choosing to return to meditation - without recrimination and without condemnation. That you just gentle recognize when you have become distracted by life and you make a decision to return to your practice. It's been busy around here, but I wanted to share that.
I'm glad what I was reading is able to resonate with you as well. 
.
