#47 Wake up earlier {52 bites}
I looked at the clock this morning. Shoot, I overslept. Way overslept. Overslept by 1 1/2 hours. Oh well, better late than never, I slid off the bed.
It was 5:30am. It’s still funny that that’s oversleeping for me these days.
I can’t say that I love getting up at 4am. But I love having gotten up at 4am. And just like the obeying/modifying issue with Heidi, for now I believe these early mornings are an issue of obedience for me. Some days, obviously, I hopelessly oversleep. But you know what I love about the ridiculously-early morning routine? Way oversleeping still gives me a 5:30am jump on my day!
So, I admit: I’m becoming a crazy early-morning advocate. Now, “early” means different things to different people. Aaron & Candi, who live downstairs part-time, have different work-schedules so he doesn’t get home until nearly midnight each night. “Early” for him is going to be much different from “early” for me–a stay-at-home-mom who has the freedom to hit the hay by 9pm.
So for this “bite” here’s what I mean by “early”:
A time which enables you to be up and complete your morning routine before you “start” your day. That might mean before your children arise, or before your husband leaves for work, or before 8am breakfast-time. Basically whenever that “start” time is for your family, work your way back to find the good time that will allow plenty of space for you to fill your cup each morning.
Now, I say allow plenty because things never go as planned. Kids wake up early, unexpected emails flood in, you oversleep by a bit. Give yourself some buffer in the morning so that even if a few things go “wrong” you’ve still given yourself plenty of time.
Now the real question: How?
Two answers: Tsh Oxenreider suggests kaizen, basically the Japanese word for baby-steps. If you want to wake up one hour earlier, you simply set your alarm 2 minutes earlier, every day for a month, after a month you’re up an hour earlier and haven’t noticed at all. This is a great plan, and you can translate it to many different areas. I’m using it in other areas of my life as well.
Second, which sounds silly or obvious, perhaps, is pray. God cares about every single detail of your life (sacred mundane!), so ask Him what time He wants you to rise each day. Wait and listen for Him. Ask Him for specifics. He can speak! And then, when He shows you,confidently ask Him to enable you to get up at that time. He won’t ask you to do anything which He will not enable you to do. Of course you won’t do it perfectly, but continue, persevere, ask Him for grace.
I must say that since starting this early-morning routine things have been SO much easier. Way more time in the Word, way more time for prayer, more time for exercise, house kept cleaner, to-do list kept shorter. I feel like I’m ready for the kids when they get up.
So what will this look like for you? Whatever time you decide and whatever method you choose, seek God and ask Him for His power each morning. As we devote the first moments of our day to Him we begin to see His presence more and more throughout our day. Since every day belongs to Him, let’s ask Him what time He wants us to begin each one.
Thanks for reading.
The dailiness that can lead to despair
Why was I crying over taco salad?
Jeff lovingly probed as I stirred beans. Asked searching questions. Tried to figure out what email I had received or who had said something unkind or what had gone on with the kids that led to the funk that enveloped his bride. I even went along with his questioning, trying to figure it out myself. It’d been about two weeks of just feeling blah. No energy, discouraged, pounding out the miles and the words and the days and Why, exactly does all this matter?
This, all while writing the book about why everything matters. Such a sense of humor, that God of ours has.
Company came, the evening passed, all was fine. It was as we stood, quiet, doing the dishes together when Jeff said it: “I think you’re birthing a book.”
Kathleen Norris’ words come to mind again:
And it seems that just when daily life seems most unbearable, stretching out before me like a prison sentence, when I seem most dead inside, reduced to mindlessness, bitter tears or both, that what is inmost breaks forth, and I realize that what had seemed “dead time” was actually a period of gestation.
It is a quotidian mystery that dailiness can lead to such despair and yet be at the core of our salvation.
It is the dailiness of life–yes?–that can be unbearable. It is the repetition, the same correction of the same child, picking up the same items, wiping the same counters, the same issue coming round again, the same struggles, the same, the same. The overdue expectant mother can relate–when every day she wakes up pregnant, wakes up the same.
But then something breaks. Something bursts and everything changes. Life bears forth and all of a sudden it’s clear that all the monotonous same-ness was the growth of a hidden life. Something was changing on the inside.
May I be that candid here? I know something’s changing on the inside, I just can’t see it yet. Right now it’s merely the pounding out of words, miles, meals, hugs and kisses. It’s the sacred mundane … I must learn to live it. Will I believe it even when the Sacred is silent and the mundane is maddeningly monotonous?
I must.
We must. Through the dailiness of life we enter salvation. The only place to believe Christ is here, the only time is now. The only place I can worship Him is right now in this place. Sanctification is what happens at 3:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, not just at 10am in a Sunday morning seat.
There’s a lot of hidden-inside growth that happens before the birth takes place. So we believe God in the daily … and we wait.
{Thanks for letting me grow in this place; and thanks always for reading.}
How to be a godly grand.
I was first introduced to reader Sharon via her “faithsgramma” email. I asked her to share what it’s like to embrace the Sacred Mundane as a grandparent. Enjoy her words today on being a godly “grand.”
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The day I became a grandmother my heart was a mixture of deep prayer and joy along with love on a level I never thought possible.
The call came telling me our daughter was in premature labor 7 weeks early, that life or death issues determined the baby needed to be born too soon for the safety of both of them. It was scary and gut-wrenching.
All I could do was pray.
Faith Elizabeth arrived weighing 2 pounds 11 ounces. She was a precious beautiful miracle baby. I remember standing over her neonatal bed thinking to myself, this is a sacred, holy moment.
On this day a grandma, a mom and a new baby, three generations huddle close to each other celebrating life and every breath.
{… he commanded our fathers so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commandments.} Psalm 78:6, 7
As I watched that tiny little baby sleep surrounded by IV tubes and buzzers I determined in my mind this grandma would share with her ways of God and the words of his truth any opportunity I could.
[These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.] Deut 6: 6, 7
Because she was a strong, healthy little baby Faith was released to go home early weighing only 3 lbs. 9 oz at 4 weeks. When our daughter had to return to work I made the choice to quit my job and stay home with Faith so she could get a good start in a protected environment.
Life as a stay at home grandma is not too different than a stay at home mom.
At times it was a bit boring, doing laundry and washing bottles, the day-to-day things that surround the care of a little baby.
It was in those moments I would continue to believe in this sacred duty. Every time I picked that tiny bundle up and held her close to me I was making memories and creating a safe place that only a grandma could do. It didn’t matter if fatigue was near or frustration walking close, what mattered was the attitude of my heart to be the spiritual grandma who told stories of Jesus and the faithfulness of our God who kept her tiny heartbeat strong.
I stayed home with her till she was age three and as time passed she has grown into a beautiful 12 year old. We have five other grandchildren now, and at times watching them is not always easy or exciting but the calling on my heart is to be a grandma who shares the love of God to each and every one of them.
I want them to know without a shadow of a doubt God is near and he loves them. I am honored to be their grandma, and pray they will love and serve God faithfully.
I am a grandmother embracing the Sacred Mundane.
{Thanks for reading.}
Give it away; there will be more.
I looked over my teaching notes, scratched up with jots and scribbles in the margins, sentences underlined and highlighted, paragraphs crossed out and stars polka-dotting the page. I had just finished a retreat and was lying in bed, basking in God’s goodness and thoroughly exhausted. The best kind of exhausted: spent. I looked over my notes and recognized God-fingerprints. These just-used Holy Spirit-breathed notes are precious to me. He always has His last minute tweaks, additions, subtractions. What I love about speaking is shifting into Holy Spirit mode and letting Him take over. He always does much better than I ever could. 🙂
But looking over these notes I thought to myself how I could share these even further by adapting them into blog-posts. Then more women could read and, Lord willing, be encouraged in their faith. Then I hesitated. Maybe I shouldn’t give everything away. Then I wouldn’t have anything to teach at the next retreat. If I just share all that I have then I won’t have anything left! Yes, I reasoned, I should hold onto some of these nuggets that way I have them for down the road.
*Ahem*
I stop, startled. Did the Holy Spirit just clear His throat at me?
I wait, listen:
Give it away; there will be more.
Of course. How do miserly ways seep into every aspect of my life? Of course, give it away.
Whenever we hesitate to give financially it’s usually because we’re afraid we won’t have enough for later. I’ve been facing that battle lately with regards to saving for a house. Lord, if we give all this away, then we won’t be able to save for a house. He smiles.
Give it way; there will be more.
Of course. It’s all from Him, and if He wants me to give it all away couldn’t He provide more to supply my every need?
And here I am, miserly once again, looking at these notes that He has given. And the temptation is there to take these words that He has given and tuck them away in my spiritual savings account because I just might need them later. It’s not an issue of timing—surely there are times when God calls us to save money for later and calls us to wait on sharing a word—this was an issue of holding onto that which God had freely given.
Give it away; there will be more.
And He speaks this over our lives. He whispers it in the details. He slides a note under our door to remind us each day:
Give it away; there will be more.
I had read it the day before, how had I already forgotten?
“Give and it will be given to you …”
Do we believe that? Do we believe that if we share all that we have that there will be more when we need?
Not just enough, more than enough. The verse continues,
“… Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Giving is simply making room for more.
When we give it away—whatever it is—we free up space on our lap to receive.
So when you give it away—watch out!—there’s more on the way.
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{What can you “give away” today knowing there will be more on the way? Stay tuned for some of the nuggets from our retreat called Changed. Thanks for reading.}