Monday night last week I was blessed to be able to attend a welcome dinner for all women associated with Southwestern. Students, Student wives, Faculty, and Faculty wives all gathered together in one large room and had the opportunity to sit, eat, and fellowship. Old friends were brought back together after a long summer apart and new relationships began to be forged. The buzz of conversation was electric and the smiles through-out the room lit up everyone’s face.
After a time of food and fellowship there came a time of introduction to the various amenities afforded to women of all stages of life on the Southwestern campus.Professors, Organization leaders, and faculty wives all took some time to stand up and share with the women how they can get plugged in and involved during their time at the seminary. The evening ended with Mrs. Dorothy Kelley Patterson, First Lady of the Seminary, sharing a bit from her heart about how pleased she is to see the women’s programs growing the way they have over the course of her time at Southwestern.
Throughout the night a running theme was that no matter what is going on be it classes, jobs, educating or transporting children, or supporting a spouse the most important thing to remember during this time at Seminary is to guard your time with the Lord.
We live in a place where deep theological discussion takes place like every day conversation. Academics are the name of the game when it comes to the happenings around here. However, it is not hard to find a person who is spiritually dry. We as students pour into our studies. We read the Bible as another homework assignment looking not for the food God wants us to be nourished on but rather for the answers for the upcoming reading quiz.
But the biggest piece of advice given by all the wonderful women who got up to speak was
Guard Your Quiet Time with the Lord.
For me, this is an area that I hate to say I lack in. I have fallen into the trap of reading for the assignment at hand but not for the assignment given by God. And this is an area I want to improve in. With the start of the new semester on us here are a few ways I am working toward guarding my time with the Lord.
A Wise Woman in Progress 
You are always full of the best advice! Thank you for sharing this!
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yes yes yes! our quite time with God is soooo important!
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These are great tips! It's so easy for life to takeover and snatch us away from that quiet time which is why we have to be intentional. Thank so much for sharing this!
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I have learned to guard my tie with God by following the advice you've presented here, and being very firm with people who try to interrupt my time. I turn off my cell phone. I put on worship music and spend time in worship that way. I pray, and I read. I do not allow interruptions of any sort. Not even if the house were to be on fire 😉
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