While my husband was away during the school year I found my patience level to be pretty much zero when I would have to get up and wake up all the kids for school in the mornings. After a few days of this I decided that something needed to change. It was a crappy way for me to start the day and it must’ve been pretty terrible for the kids dealing with my temper in the mornings.
I have heard many stories from other friends that tell me they wake up at 5:30am every morning to work out and/or do their morning devotions before getting the kids ready for school or getting ready for work. I have also heard many talks about how Jesus (and consequently other theologians, authors, Christians, etc…) got up early in the mornings to pray before starting the day and how we should try and imitate that. I have never been able to do that. No matter how hard I tried and how many times I tried. Trying to start this discipline during the winter time is the absolute worst when it’s still dark out and so cold in the house.
But the mornings were getting pretty bad for us during the school week (and luckily it was already spring time) so I decided to set my alarm extra early and get up before the kids to get ready and dressed and then do a little bit of quiet time in the morning before waking them up. In the beginning of this new routine it was totally awesome. I was in a much better mood with the kids, we weren’t in such a rush since I was already dressed and ready and had my morning cup of coffee, and I had plenty of time to do my devotions.
This awesomeness lasted for about a week. I was still able to get up before the kids each morning but I began hitting my snooze button more and more as the weeks went on. And of course the thing to suffer was my quiet time with God. But even before I was waking up later I found my eyes glazing over as I was reading my Bible and commentary and I kept having to read the same passages and sentences over and over again cause nothing would sink in. And my prayers would just be one distracted jumbled mess. I just could not sit still and concentrate in the mornings after the first week.
I really did enjoy getting up early in the mornings and it really helped our family get off to a better start to the day but I was really lacking in the discipline of getting up early to spend time with God. I’m not exactly sure what to do next. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself in trying to squeeze a good quiet time in every morning. Or maybe I need to add a little variety to my morning devotions or something. Or maybe it’s a mix of both… certainly having some discipline in my life is good for me (and I really thrive on routines) but not forcing things if it’s just not gonna happen in the mornings.
The new school year starts in just a couple weeks for the kids… we’ll see what happens in the mornings.
I feel the need to blog 