Confessions of an Un-Morning Person

I'm going to come clean. I like my bed. A lot. We have a good mattress, a wonderful down duvet, and a peaceful bedroom. We frequently have a late-night visitor climbing in between us in our warm cozy bed, but it's a pretty nice place to be. Another confession. I tend to stay up way too late. I used to think I didn't require a lot of sleep but I'm rethinking that one. The post-bedtime hours in our home are quiet and enticing. I seem to start projects late in the evening and get caught up in creating or laundering or reading or anything else that is more enjoyable in quiet or that I've put off doing in the day. Years of getting up in the night with a baby or two and grabbing every bit of sleep until the first child awoke in the morning conditioned me to get up only when I absolutely had to. I used to think I was rather enterprising, still finding time for hobbies even with little ones around. Now my littles are, well, not-so-little and sleep is a bit more predictable around here. Now it's simply a matter of personal discipline.

It's no secret here that I love the Word of God. Day after day and year after year I grow only by exposing myself to God's Truth and my relationship continues to grow. I've made time for this at different times of the day, out of necessity, and that quiet time has come in the late morning, afternoon, or late at night. I've been convicted lately of my need to seek God in the morning before my day starts.

You see the challenge. If I'm not up before my children, I'm not going to have time for reading and prayer in a quiet room. After eleven years of motherhood I sleep through the alarm clock without hearing it. How am I going to consistently find that morning time if something doesn't change?

After six weeks, I can tell you that I have consistently had a good half-hour in the mornings to spend with the Lord. No, I'm not waking up to an alarm. No, my husband isn't waking me up. No, I don't make my children sit quietly in their rooms until it's time for the noise of the day to begin. It's been a very simple solution, quite honestly.

I started praying six weeks ago that God would wake me in the morning so that I could have that time with Him before the children get up. And you know what? He's been totally faithful to do so. It hasn't been the exact same time every morning but within a twenty minute window. I wake up and anticipate that time. Heading for the sofa in our south-east facing living room, I grab a warm throw and settle in with my Bible and journal. I shouldn't be surprised that God would wake me consistently but it is just so obviously not something I am doing on my own that it excites me. These times are fulfilling and quenching and intimate as I seek Him.

Maybe I'm becoming a morning person after all.