The women at my church with young kids have just started up a book club, so we can get to know each other better and encourage one another during this busy season of our lives.
The first book we're reading is Shopping for Time. It has some good challenges in it, and one we discussed this week is that of getting up early (before the rest of the family) to spend time with God and to serve the family by preparing for the day.
I am SO not an early riser. I have always, always, waited until the last possible moment to get out of bed. Sometimes I have left it too long, most notably when my friend Jenny and I missed the train in yr 12 and would have been late for our trial english exam (very important event) had we not woken up her boyfriend to drive us to school - all because I slept in.
So it is a significant challenge for me to even think about getting up before I have to. Any time I've tried it, I've failed abysmally. Of course, these days, I don't decide when to get up - Hamish decides for me. But I could get up when he wakes, instead of lying in bed with a grumpy baby who really wants to get up and on with the day.
The benefits of spending time with God at the start of the day are pretty clear to me. The other aspect, that of blessing my family by preparing for the day, is one I am chewing over. Of course if I am sleep deprived because of a restless baby, the best way to serve my family (and myself) is to get as much sleep as possible and if that means sleeping in, so be it. But if I get to bed by 10pm, I can get enough sleep, or near enough, now that Hamish is doing better overnight (by the way, you have no idea how exciting that is for me). So if I were to get up at 6.30am instead of 7am, I wonder what I could do with the time? More thinking to do....
Communicating with your Terrific Toddler, Even When It’s Hard
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Those sweet months of snuggling your tiny helpless baby in your arms went
by in a flash, didn’t they? Now you have a spirited little person who is
moving...
7 comments:
It sounds great, Al, but your body clock was also given to you by God. I speak as a not-morning person myself. Some time ago, during the Christmas holidays, I decided it would be great to get up early and go for a walk, because that would free me up in the evenings to work in the garden ( when I would previously have gone for a walk.) It just didn't work.
Might be less tricky to just cut short something else like tv or internet time - something you don't actually need. Sleep is very important...
On the other hand sometimes I get up early and go to yoga and I much prefer this to going of an evening on the weekends because it's all out of the way by 9am and I still have the whole day.
You must be a morning person, Mary!
I agree sleep is important - I could go to bed half an hour earlier to make up for getting up a bit earlier. I know what you mean about the body clock KM, it is a powerful force. I do think you can adjust it though as we do when daylight savings starts and ends, and we get used to it. Just getting over the initial hurdle is a challenge though...
Did you give it a go Alison? If so, how did it go?
I'd be interested to know if you just find it difficult to wake up early, but once you're up you can get stuck into the day (which is what I'm like once I'm vertical and have some coffee or tea in me), or if you take a good half hour or so to get going no matter what time you get up in the morning.
I have a dear friend who is grumpy and finds it incredibly difficult to get going in the morning, no matter how much sleep she's had. She says she's always been like this and her husband and 10 month old both know to leave her alone for the first 30 mins to an hour of the day. (her husband knows to not even talk to her!!!)
She finds it best to do her meditation and bible reading after her son has had his breakfast and is playing quietly, or when he is having his morning nap. It's still early in her day and works better for her this way.
Hey Aimee, I haven't done it yet as we are co-sleeping with Hamish at the moment (for the second half of the night usually) so it's impossible for me to get up before him. But I have been trying to do my bible reading and praying at some point in the morning instead of leaving it to before bed, and have been trying to get up and make Adam a coffee before he heads off to work.
I generally struggle to get my brain working before 7am - I'm not quite as grumpy as your friend but I do find it hard to focus before I've woken up properly. But after a coffee I'm usually fine.
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