Saturday spiritual sustenance

On a fall or summer Saturday

Probably Saturday is a favorite day of the week for many of us.  It surely is one of my favorites.  My hubby is usually home, and we don't need to get up at our usual 4:30 or 4:45 a.m.  We might even sleep in until 5:30 or 6 a.m.!  We might do something a little different like going out for breakfast or enjoying a treat like homemade coffeecake or muffins.  Sometimes I will fix a flavored coffee on Saturday mornings for a nice treat.

But Saturdays are also very busy.  It's usually the only day Mr. T can find time to get to the dump, and he nearly always has some tasks he wants to attend to at home or around our church building or grounds, or at one of our parents' homes.  I'm often busy cooking and baking for Sunday, and often have household tasks or laundry to catch up with as well.

So I like to begin my Saturdays as I do every other day,  by having a good quiet time with the Lord.  In summer or fall, as pictured above, I love having my quiet time outdoors.  And on a Saturday, my hubby can do so as well.

My Saturday quiet times differ a bit from my weekday ones, and just feel a little special because of that.  It all started when I began doing some online Bible study plans from Love God Greatly.  Several of the studies I did only had readings for the weekdays.  So I would read and use the SOAP method of Bible study to work through the verses for each weekday. 

On Saturdays, I would need to do something different.  One thing I have sometimes done is to answer any study questions for the particular study I am doing.  I've been finding with the Love God Greatly studies that I end up answering most of the questions in my SOAPing of the verses, so in the past few studies I've done I skipped the questions.

One activity that's been a constant for at least the past year or two during my Saturday quiet times is adding to my Scripture journal. My friend Susan did a wonderful post about her journal and it is well worth your attention.  Find it here: Building an Effective Scripture Journal.  I usually add one page to my Scripture journal on Saturday and another on Sunday.  This practice is such a blessing for getting to know our God well!

I usually will also spend some of my quiet time on Saturday reviewing Scripture memory verses.

Another thing I will frequently do on a Saturday is add a page or two to my prayer journal.  If you don't have a prayer journal or the one you have isn't working for you, check out this post:  How to Make a Prayer Journal (which, interestingly, is the second most popular post of all time on my blog!).  You will probably also want to read this one: Using a Prayer Journal.  I find that there's pretty much an endless list of things I want to pray about regularly, like specific character flaws in my life, for example, so I am frequently adding to my prayer journal.  The posts I've linked to will show you how to do that.

Then I finish up my Saturday quiet time with a good time of prayer.  I'm ready for whatever else a Saturday might bring!