Sometimes it seems like as soon as I decide that I’m going to set aside time to spend with the Lord, my phone starts ringing, the neighbor’s dog trees a coon and won’t stop barking at the top of his lungs, and someone turns on the TV featuring my favorite show. One of the biggest keys to having an effective devotional life is setting yourself up to succeed.

Here are a few tips for getting started the right way:

Supplies. Make sure you have a Bible (in a version you can understand), journal, pen, and maybe a devotional book. We’ll talk more about this stuff later.

Pick a time. The mornings are the best time (see Psalm 5:3). I know, I know: teenagers aren’t functional before 10 AM. Well, I would have to disagree. I have a friend who started waking up at 5:30 AM to spend time with the Lord in his teen years and he’s been doing it for seven years now. If you absolutely find it physically impossible to spend time with the Lord in the morning, try to choose a time when your house is quiet and you can get time alone. The most important thing is trying to be consistent, so if you snooze through the alarm, try to make time later in the day.

Get by yourself. This can be particularly difficult if you share a room or have a big family. Be on the lookout for times during the day where you can find a place to be alone. Right now, going outside could work really well.

Turn stuff off. Try to remove all of the distractions in your room. Turn off the TV, computer, and (gasp!) phone. I promise, if you turn your phone off for 30 minutes, it will still be there beeping, vibrating, and lighting up when you turn it back on.

Clear your mind. Even when I turn off my phone, TV, and computer, sometimes I can’t turn off my wandering thoughts. As soon as I decide to focus, I think of things I need to do, people I need to call, what I might wear, or what haircut I want to get next. All of these are clearly relevant and important trains of thought, but not necessarily what I want to be thinking about. Sometimes if I just write down what I’m thinking about to remind myself of it later, I can clear my mind of it. Sometimes, I just have to pray that the Lord will help my focus my thoughts on Him.

Turn on some tunes. Sometimes it helps to have some worship music playing softly to help you stay focused. I like to make a mix of some of my favorite slower songs. Even though it’s worship, sometimes fast, loud music can be just as distracting as listening to the radio.

This will put you in a great place to start. We’ll keep talking about how to pray, read the Bible, and choose a good devotional book.

Summer is the glorious and magical time each year when there’s no school, the days are longer, there are fewer obligatory scheduled events, and you get to swim and get a tan.  What’s not to love?

Summer is also a great time to focus more on your relationship with the Lord.  Going to church camp, going on retreats, and having more free time are all great for spiritual growth.

One of the most frustrating things to me was that every summer, I would have these incredible mountain-top experiences with the Lord, and didn’t really know what to do to maintain the closeness with the Lord that I felt.  It seemed like as soon as I started back to school, all of the summer emotional highs had cooled and I was left scraping to find time to spend with the Lord.

Experiencing those incredible mountain-top moments with God is wonderful.  Some of the biggest turning points in my life occurred during those moments.  However, it’s easy to get addicted to those experiences.  Learning how to spend time with the Lord, consistently and faithfully, will totally revolutionize your relationship with the Lord.  Learning how to wait before the Lord, seek Him on a daily basis, and trust Him with your daily decisions creates a spiritual depth and unwavering foundation for the rest of your life in Christ.

When it comes to learning to grow in your relationship with the Lord, getting into a pattern is really important.  The more consistent you are in spending quiet time with the Lord, the easier it becomes to make that a big part of your daily life.  The big, emotional experiences at camps and conventions become more of a continuation of what’s already been happening in your life.

Over the next few days, I’d like to talk about some really practical ways to learn how to spend time with the Lord, and how to make it worthwhile and maybe even enjoyable.

When I think about the women who really had an impact on my life, there’s not a Britney, Christina, or Jessica among them. (There wasn’t a Miley, Vanessa, or Leighton when I was growing up, but I’m sure they would be omitted as well.) Mostly, this is due to the fact that I had no want for female role models, though the names of my role models are much less recognizable. While I think every one of them is beautiful, they’re not Hollywood trend-setters.

My list includes my mom, who was there for every important decision ranging from accepting Christ to choosing a prom dress; Pastor Laurie, my children’s pastor who laid a solid foundation for my relationship with the Lord and let me squirt mustard in her armpits as a fundraiser; Tricia, who thought it was important enough to attend my eighth-grade musical that she drove eight hours through the night so she wouldn’t miss the East Middle School presentation of Bye Bye, Birdie; and Melissa, who showed me how cool it was to be a Christian woman.

It’s completely natural to look for role models – someone to watch as you’re learning what it means to be a Christian girl in the 21^st century. It’s even biblical. In 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NIV) Paul says, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.”

No one is perfect. Pop princesses and pastors alike will disappoint eventually. There really is no perfect role model aside from Christ, but choose your role models wisely. Keep an eye out for someone who is living out what it means to be a woman of God on a daily basis.

Look for someone who is right there with you. Don’t get me wrong: someone who sees you several times a week might get annoying. She might even try to give you advice or tell you not to do something you really want to do, but she’ll also know you, care about you, pray for you, and be there when you need to talk to someone.

Miley Cyrus probably won’t be coming to your soccer game anytime soon and Paris Hilton probably won’t call to take you out for coffee, but there are probably godly women in your church who would be glad to take you out for coffee.

The best role models might not wear the latest trends or look like celebrities. The best role models have beauty from the “…inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight” (1 Peter 3:4, NIV).

If you have someone like that in your life, take time to tell her how much you appreciate her. If you don’t have anyone like that in your life yet, talk to your pastor or youth pastor and ask them to suggest a godly woman who might be willing to spend time with you.

Sometimes when I pray (or even talk with my friends) I just list problems and things that I need. So, I decided that I’d take a minute to think of things I’m really thankful for. I’m certainly not Oprah, and I won’t be giving away any free cars (at least not today), but I thought I’d share a few of my favorite things with you today.

1.  My Family. I know this one might be kind of a given, but I’m really thankful for my parents and my brother. I genuinely enjoy spending time with them.

2.  Homemade Ice Cream. So simple, but so good.

3.  Music. I love all kinds of music. I love hearing of new bands and listening to different styles of music. I’m so glad that God chose to use music as a way to express our feelings of worship to Him.

4.  Playing in the rain. Seriously, is there anything more refreshing than a good jump in a puddle? We’ve been getting a lot of rain lately, so I’ve been able to indulge in my favorite rainy day pastime.

5.  Swings. We just built a swing on our tree in the backyard. It’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time. We have a porch swing in the front of our house. It’s incredibly relaxing. I also maintain that swinging works muscles that you don’t work out otherwise.

6.   Whistling. If you’re ever bored, look a friend in the face and try to whistle at the same time. I guarantee you won’t be able to for very long before you start laughing.

7.  Daisies. It’s really hard to be in a bad mood after someone gives you daisies. To quote Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail, “They’re such happy flowers, aren’t they?”

8.  Bunnies. We have a rabbit who’s taken up residence in our front yard. She and I have a very special relationship. She greets me every morning as I walk out to my car and welcomes me home every night.

9.  Italian Food. I really like to eat, and my favorite kind of food to eat is definitely Italian food. There’s something about Italian food that feels like you should be eating it with your favorite people in the world and talking loudly.

10.  Christmas Eve. I know Christmas is still 6 months away, but Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the whole year. We always go to Christmas Eve service and come home and eat soup and open presents as a family. As I get older, I keep waiting for Christmas to lose some of its excitement, but I fall more in love with it every year.

OK, your turn now. What are you thankful for?

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the so-far extremely mild summer in my home town. This past weekend, our backyard was a veritable cornucopia of lawn games. We installed a new tree swing, watched clouds, and got mosquito bites. I played badminton and bocce ball. Badminton is definitely not my game, but I think I redeem myself with the bocce ball. I finally started to get the first stages of a tan. It was a brilliant time.

Sunday night, after a weekend of awesomely fun outdoor games, I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had that much fun in a single weekend. I was completely tired out, but at the same time felt really refreshed. My joy was due in part to the fact that it’s been raining cats and dogs here lately and it was great to see the sun shining.

I also think a lot of the fun came as a direct result to spending so much time with friends. It seems like so often when I’m spending time with friends, we spend much of our time facing forward toward a screen which provides us with entertainment, but doesn’t really encourage personal interaction.

Even when I’m talking with friends, it seems like we’re not really talking so much as typing. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with text messaging. I think it’s sort of creative that a generation has developed a way of communicating that requires seconds to exchange messages. At the same time, texting or IMing really can’t take the place of actually having a face to face conversation with a friend.

The other bonus of the weekend was that I spent way less money this weekend than I have in a long time. The only real expense of the weekend was the $30 tree swing we built. It’s already worth its weight in gold. We ate at home – grilling out and sharing fruit, chips, and baked beans. There was no need to spend money at the movie theater. We were having too much fun outside.

By the end of the weekend, my face hurt from laughing so hard. We made so many memories and had so much fun just being together. So, go outside and have some free fun!

Recently, I had the opportunity to look through some of my mom’s old journals. She kept record of some of the funny things and milestones in my growing up years. Apparently, some of my favorite phrases as a child were, “This is worthless,” and “That’s so depressing.” I was an optimistic little girl.

As I was perusing the journal, I discovered my mom’s perspective on the only spanking I remember getting as a child:

I had gotten a tricycle for one of my birthdays. It was beautiful. It was dark blue and had glorious flowing blue and white streamers on the handlebars.

When my parents decided I was old enough to graduate from doing circles around our back patio to riding on the actual sidewalk in front of our house, my mom created boundaries. Our house was on the corner, so she used masking tape to mark off the area from the end of our sidewalk down to the start of our neighbor’s driveway. This was practically a half-marathon to my stubby little three-year-old legs, but it was not nearly enough for me to ride freely. I wanted to feel the wind in my hair and ride the open road!

One day, my dad was out doing yard work and keeping an eye on me as I pedaled with reckless abandon from one tape mark to the other and back again. I decided it was time to stretch the boundaries. My dad hadn’t been around and I thought maybe my dad didn’t know about the tape yet. I carefully and deliberately pedaled past the masking tape border and onto my neighbor’s driveway. Freedom! I felt like a regular Amelia Earhart (or at least I would have had I known who she was).

I turned around and confidently pedaled past my dad. I figured if I pretended not to be guilty, he might not notice me. Unfortunately, my dad had eyes like a hawk and reminded me of the importance (and reality) of the boundaries.

I turned around mumbling to myself as I rode. I decided to show him that riding past the boundaries wasn’t as dangerous as he thought. I self-assuredly journeyed across the border yet again. This time, my dad had been watching. He blocked my path as I turned around. He warned me in his most stern daddy voice that if I took my tricycle past the border again that there would surely be a spanking in my future.

This was shocking. He’d never threatened this thing called “spanking” before. I decided to find out if he was bluffing. I rode to the corner, turned around and deliberately picked up momentum. I turned around to make sure he was watching and pedaled right past the border and rapidly decided I might have made the wrong decision, so I’d just ride as far as I could until he caught me. I had hardly reached the other side of the driveway before he had me in one arm, picking up my beloved blue tricycle with the other.

He said, “Ashley, what did you just do?”

I replied, “I rode my trike…past the tape.”

“Do you know what I have to do now?”

I wasn’t completely sure what “spanking” meant, but I knew it certainly couldn’t be good, so I ventured a guess, “Take me back and get another little girl.”

My dad reassured me that I was the only little girl he wanted, but let me know that I had disobeyed and that there would be consequences. More than 20 years have passed since that fateful day and my dad was on the verge of tears as he recounted this part of the story from his perspective.

I realized that the Lord’s discipline is very much the same. How often do we think to ourselves “Maybe He won’t notice,” “I’ll just show Him this isn’t as dangerous as He thinks it is,” or “The consequences can’t be that bad,” only to find ourselves moments later repenting and expecting to be immune from the consequences.

Hebrews 12:7-11 (NIV) says, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

This is the first official post of the National Girls Ministries blog specifically for teen girls. It’s my hope that this will be a safe, fun place for you to come and talk about things that really matter to you, a place to talk about things happening in the world that affect your life.

We’ll talk about new music, movies, books (the kind you might actually want tot read), and news. From time to time, I’ll talk about something that doesn’t really have to do with much of anything, but hopefully it will mean something to you.

If you want to talk about something we’re not already talking about or have a question about something, feel free to leave a comment or email tgm@ag.org.

Happy blogging!