It wasn't that I didn't try.

I set aside time at the end of my home study sessions. I would finish my reading and note-taking between 11 p.m. and midnight. Then I would open my Bible to an exciting passage and begin to read. By the time I finished the passage, I would be asleep with my head on the desk.

So, I switched to morning. I would rise a half-hour early, read a passage and quickly get into my prayer. That worked for about a week, and then my part-time job at a church got a bit complicated with the needs of teen-agers, and my scheduled devotional time fell by the wayside.

That wayside area is, unfortunately, where most people's devotional time gets dumped as we maneuver our busy lives and work through our complicated relationships. And it can make us feel guilty when we realize we haven't done our Bible reading and prayer for days or weeks or months.

I don't want to make you feel either more guilty or more obligated to speak to your Lord each day. We know that study of the Good Book and intense personal prayer are good things to do. Such practices help keep us on target. They make us feel in touch with divinity. And that kind of practice, we know, can give us pearls of wisdom to help us through our days.

But I have to confess that I have never been able to maintain a day-by-day regimen of devotions. Yes, there are times when I take a few minutes out of my workday, read some Scripture and pray about the people in my life. But I still feel guilty about not maintaining a daily schedule of Bible reading and prayer.

So I have often wondered who buys all the books devoted to daily devotions. There are books with Bible readings and thoughts for 365 days - and it seems that every publishing company comes out annually with a book filled with biblical insights and thoughtful interpretations. And there are plenty of books to help you set up a schedule of devotionals - to get you into the daily habit of communing with your chosen Lord.

But I still wonder who buys those books. My guess is the same people buy them year after year, hoping the little missals will change their lives and allow them to spend valuable time with their religious thoughts. There must be people out there who have dozens of devotional help books packed away in boxes and hiding in a basement closet.

One assumes that older people, those with some time on their hands, will get into a devotional pattern and stay there. Younger people, with children and spouses and aging parents, just figure they don't have time.

One woman I know told me about her grandmother, a woman in her 80s who would take her Bible to her rocking chair by the window. It was the same chair she used through the raising of six children. It was comfortable and familiar. She loved sitting there.

Then she would open her Bible, all filled with pencil notes and bookmarks, and she would test passage after passage until she found one that gave her pause. Then she would stay there, reading and re-reading until it had been processed in her mind.

Occasionally she would look out the window, perhaps taking a rest from her thinking or perhaps moving deeper into the passage. But it was that pause that always caught the granddaughter's eye. What was she thinking, the young girl wondered. What is she worried about at her age?

That's the beauty of taking time for devotions: Without answering to anyone, we can take our fears, hopes and dreams for the future - as well as our regrets and sorrow about the past - and give them all to God.

Our summer is quickly passing, and many of us have been so busy having fun that we have neglected those important moments when we are alone with God. It doesn't have to be a profound time or life-changing. But it has to be on our own schedule.

And then all the shocking news from the world - the bombings, the charges against the president, the ugliness on all sides - withers and slithers to the wayside. That's when the true priorities of life become obvious.

Clark D. Morphew