*** This post is part of Works For Me Wednesday at Rocks In My Dryer. Head over there to see everyone else’s great ideas! ***
A couple of weeks ago I started a new daily schedule for the summer. Before implementing my schedule, I rarely spent time with God in the morning, resting on the excuse that I am not a morning person. I often made time for Bible study and prayer in the afternoon during my kids’ rest time. This afternoon time was fairly consistent, but there were days when other responsibilities would distract me by the time 1:30 p.m. rolled around.
When I began my summer schedule, I decided to wake up every morning at 6:30 so I would have time to shower, get dressed, AND have my quiet time before my kids wake up. To hold myself accountable to this, I made a rule: No computer before Bible study.
This is radical for me, because I am addicted to the Internet. And if you are reading this, chances are, so are you. It is amazing how I never go one day without making time to check my email, Facebook and 14 favorite blogs. But I often go days without making time for my Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
I cannot claim to be 100% consistent with my new rule, but it has definitely helped. I am falling in love with my morning time with my Savior, and by His grace, I hope to become even more disciplined. I will probably need to ask myself over and over again: What is more important to me than spending time with God? What do I need to do to fix those priorities? Next idol to tackle: Sleep.
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My whole attitude has changed since I started a Bible study at our church that encourages to incorporate some built-in quiet time into our mornings…it has made a HUGE difference for me and for the rest of the family. Thanks for reminding me of this!
Hi, this is my first time visiting your blog – from WFMW. I struggle with this too – are you by chance doing “No Other Gods” with Beth Moore’s blog group? I did my first day of homework today and the first thing that came to mind was that buying a laptop to replace my desktop computer was NOT a good thing for my spiritual life. I’m going to try your rule – I’m sure it will motivate me to refocus on THE God.
Thanks, Laurie
What a great idea. I should do that. Thanks for sharing! Come on by Wani’s World sometime!
Thanks for this post. Last year I did this too, sometimes getting up at 6.00, other times at 6.30. It made such a difference to my day, and in addition to the spiritual benefits I felt great physically from getting up early. Unfortunately this year I haven’t done so well, and now it is winter here I really struggle. You have encouraged me to try again.
Having a clean desk to sit at really helped me to get up in the morning, knowing I had somewhere to “work” (if I sat in a comfy chair I would go right back to sleep!)
The first thing I did when I began getting up early was to use a concordance to find all the “morning” verses – wow! there are so many! Like your Words of the Morning post.
Don’t stop getting up early 🙂
We posted on the same topic! But different aspects of it. I too, had to make the no computer rule. I can’t do the afternoon thing. Too many distractions. Instead, I get up at 5:30am to spend time with God. It didn’t start that early though, believe you me! I started at 6:30 (1/2 hour before the kids were up), then moved it to 6am and now 5:30am. I just found that I kept needing/wanting more time. It’s totally God, not me at all!
Keep up the good work! =0)
Great idea to stay away from the computer before your quiet time. I’m not a morning person either, but I’ve found that the morning really is the best time for me to have a quiet time because of limited distractions.
Great idea! It’s so easy to get sidetracked in the morning and never get back to good intentions! I was saying a few nights ago that I’ve got to get my Quiet Time back on track and my husband was like…OK…you’ve said that before…from now on, when I get up in the morning (at 5:30) – I’m dragging you out of bed…you’ll get an early start to your day and won’t have an excuse anymore…2 days, so far so good. I hate giving up the sleep, but I pretty much wake up when he gets up anyway, so it does feel good to redeem that time! Best wishes!
It’s SO hard to get out of bed early, but I know how important it is. Thanks for the reminder.
I used to have the rule “no reading anything until I read my Bible”. I need to go back to that. Thanks for the reminder.
As Joyce Meyer says, “Ouch! Hallelujah!”
I do a similar thing. It’s hard to make myself leave the computer closed, but it means a much more happy and productive day. (And I usually end up with a ton of computer time anyway.)
yeah, I so needed that reminder. it’s so easy to hop on the computer for “a few minutes”, but not so easy to get into God’s word with the kiddos all around. I need to work on this!!
I have been debating having the same rule. Hmmmm. I think you motivated me to just do it.
Can feel some challenging changes coming up…..