I spent an entire day without my social media apps on my phone. Believe me, it wasn’t by choice. My iPhone literally started boycotting me on Sunday evening, refusing to save pictures or even send text messages. Matt, ever iPhone savvy, informed me that since I hadn’t updated my apps in a while (or, ahem, ever), it was time. Being a servant-hearted husband, her took my phone while I slept and updated everything for me.

I awoke Monday to a day that would prove to be both frustrating and enlightening.

When my alarm went off and I reached for my phone, I quickly realized most of the apps I use (Instagram, VSCO, my devotional, Gmail) weren’t done loading after 12 hours of processing.

I clicked on Instagram to try to re-load the app when my phone notified me I had reached my storage capacity and could no longer use Instagram (or any other app for that matter) until I freed space.

Ultimately, it took me an entire day of deleting and reloading apps, deleting images, and reallocating storage before my phone started working properly again.

During this process, The Lord whispered something into my heart, something I just couldn’t shake until I made the time to sit down and write about it.

We fill our lives with so many things. To-do lists for our to-do lists, appointments and schedules. Work, goals, dreams and travel plans. As a culture, we have a hard time sitting still, leaving an empty space.

How can we be filled with The Word, with The Spirit, if we don’t leave room for it to permeate our lives? 

For a long time, I talked about yearning for a relationship with God, a life saturated by His presence. I wanted Him to use me. And then I continued to load my calendar with other things. Meetings and coffee dates and weddings and workshops. I thought, “Oh, if I don’t open my bible today, it will still be there for me tomorrow.”

How could I expect Him to use me when my vessel was being filled with everything I thought was important but Him?

This was a hard truth, y’all. A tough-love lesson from my heavenly Father to his stubborn, distracted daughter.

Today started a little differently. With a quiet moment, a beautiful sunrise, coffee with my Husband, and The Word.

“Let every heart prepare Him room.”