5 Ways to Find God in Quiet Moments

My world is often filled with noise, and I have to work to find God in quiet moments.

Take this morning for example. When I drove the boys to school, noise surrounded me. The radio was on, and my older son was singing along to the sounds of hip-hop. Meanwhile, my younger son started telling me all about the bumps that had started to show up on his abdomen, his back, and his legs. Were they bites? Was he allergic to something? What was this?

As he used my cell phone to take pictures of some of the bumps, a driver to my left started honking repeatedly at the driver in front of him, who’d failed to take the turn when the light turned green. Talking over the noise of the radio and the honking, my older son began diagnosing the bumps on his brother’s body.

By the end of our fourteen-minute drive, I was ready for a bit of silence. I needed respite from the constant barrage of noise—I needed to return to a place of calm and still. I needed to feel washed by peace.

I don’t think it’s all that different in the life of faith, not when we desperately want to connect with God in the midst of a noisy world. What does it mean to incorporate silence into our daily routines in order to experience spiritual growth? How is it even possible for this to happen with the needs and the noise of a busy household, including (but not limited to) kids, pets, and a partner?

If this is your story, too, I want to offer 5 ways you can find God in quiet moments.

1. By Honoring Silence

Find God by honoring silence when the rest of the house is asleep.

There’s nothing I hate more than being told to set my alarm half an hour earlier (in order to spend time with God or to have time to myself). But there is often a time before the children wake up or after they go to sleep when the house is quiet. What would it look like to find God in these moments? As I’ve gotten older, my internal clock just loves to wake up before everyone else, which means I usually get an hour of quiet to sit in silence. I sit in my favorite chair with a cup of coffee: sometimes I read, but often I just sit there and cushion my day with a bit of peace.

2. By Keeping Your Cell Phone in Another Room

Years ago, I realized that my cell phone was often the last thing I looked at before bed and the first thing I looked at when I woke up. I necessitated the need for it on my bedside because I used it as an alarm clock and jotted phrases into the Notes app when random midnight revelations occurred. Conveniently forgetting, I could use an actual alarm clock or keep some sticky notes and a pen nearby.

Charging my phone downstairs in the kitchen every night became a game-changer for me. It restored much-needed silence into my life in ways I didn’t even know I needed.

3. By Practicing Tech Sabbath

I’m not sure where the phrase originated, but my family takes a break from technology at least once or twice a week. Thursdays have typically been our “Tech Sabbath” day.

When the boys come home from school, they refrain from using iPads, Kindles, Nintendo, and television. My husband and I do the same by shutting our laptops early and muting our cell phones for the rest of the day. Even though we limit how much screen time our children are allowed to have on any given day, taking a break for one afternoon and evening a week restores us with the gift of silence.

The presence of God is more clearly seen and heard because we’re not distracted by everything else!

4. By Not Filling Your Ears With Noise

It’s easy for me to go from one noisy activity to another, even if said “noisy activity” is a podcast while I make dinner, an audiobook while I’m folding laundry or a message from a friend on a walkie-talkie app while I’m walking the dog. I can quickly go through the day without giving my ears a chance to rest and relish in the gift of silence.

Is it the same for you?

Dare yourself to take a breather from all that noise and see if God might be found in the ordinary moments of the everyday. I think of Brother Lawrence, who practiced the presence of God (and wrote a book of a similar name) while washing the dishes, and I yearn to experience the same.

5. By Minimizing Your Life

Minimization can happen in several different ways. We can minimize the objects around us, so we’re not inundated by stuff. We can minimize our schedules so we’re not running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We can even minimize the meals we prepare and eat so as not to overwhelm our minds with too much preparation.

Kendra Adichi, author of The Lazy Genius Way, has moved away from minimization. As she says, “Be a genius about things that matter and lazy about things that don’t.” Part of me wonders: in being a genius about the things that matter, could we, too, come to find God in new ways?

Do whatever works for you. You might discover you find God in tiny moments of silence. More importantly, God might find you in the quiet as well.