Dedicating Time to God
I remember thinking to myself over the years…”It should be so easy to do the rosary daily. It should be about 15-20 mins of a day that has bountiful time.” But why is it that I could never pull off a daily rosary routine. Why is that most people don’t do a daily rosary routine? We all should be able to at least dedicate 15 minutes of time to God.
I believe the answer really lies in what our priority in life really is. I believe for many Catholics, including myself, all these years operate with the assumption and understanding that we believe that Jesus is our Savior, that God is present in our lives, and that Mary cares deeply for us as our heavenly mother. But we don’t set up our lives to show that we believe. Going to mass once a week, and leaving the rest of the week to everything else deprioritizes our faith and gives God very little.
Now, I am speaking from first hand experience here, and everyone’s cases are different as we all have unique activities and schedules that consume our time. For me, I had a busy work schedule, with a morning routine that centered on getting ready for work (always rushing), and then coming home at the end of the day doing chores and spending what little time I have with my kids.
At the end of the day, there was little true happiness. There was always a gap, and this gap had opened the door to temptations in action and thought, both of which pulled me further away from God. How do you get back to God, when the world is pulling you so far away from Him? The answer…let go of the world. What is your priority? Is work your priority? Is scrolling social media sites and watching videos improving your life or is it just filling time?
There are cases where these items help to deepen your faith, but I would suspect that we are not always looking into items that improve our faith. I made the decision in September of 2024 to re-prioritize my life, because God deserves so much more from me. At some point, I will describe my conversion story, which really propelled me on this path, but for now, know that I realized I needed God. I needed more of Him. Once a week going to mass, daily prayers at night with the family were not enough. By shuffling my life around, I have integrated prayer and worship in my daily routine. Instead of having very limited daily time for God, I now am able to offer over 40 mins of my time to Him.
What seemed impossible to me, even though it should be so simple, is now a reality. Not only do I try to do the rosary daily, I do other prayers and often get to daily mass. All of this is being done out of desire to do them.
I pray that this message helps to inspire others. Know that this comes from deep humility, as I have been and will continue to be broken, imperfect, and failing daily. With God at my side daily, I can try to combat the temptations of the world and strive to remain focused and give God more than I have ever given Him in the past.
