Morning Wisdom

My husband is an early riser and usually the first one up in the mornings. He starts the coffee and sits down to read his Bible. When I wake up in the mornings I'm often greeted with a warm cup of coffee and I stay in bed to start my day by also spending time with the Lord in His Word, while my husband tends to the morning needs of any early risers. I rather like this routine. I am spoiled. But before you decide that I am too spoiled, you should know that it hasn't always been this way. In fact most of my married life my husband has had to work odd hours. Either swings; bringing him home in the middle of the night and sleeping late into the day, or graveyards; bringing him home in the early morning and sleeping through the day. So that meant that I was the one slipping out of the room to make the coffee and tend to the morning needs of the kids. Those of you who know me, know that I am NOT a morning person.   Not.  At.  All.   I am simply not a normal functioning human until I have had an entire pot of coffee and time to acclimate to the bizarre idea of daytime.

So having a regular, meaningful time of morning devotions has often been a struggle for me.

I know the necessity of "meeting with the Master in the morning" as a dear friend always calls it. And my desire is to do so. When my three oldest boys were younger I would often drag myself out of bed, pour my coffee, sit down with my Bible and try to focus my eyes as I was waking up. But just about the time I felt coherent enough to really communicate with Jesus, in walked a little boy or two or three, wanting my attention. Some mornings I just wasn't ready for that yet. I hadn't had enough time to absorb the Word of God, to prepare my heart, to change the irritable, grumpy me, into a gentle, patient mom. Can you relate? But by God's grace He has helped me to grow in this area. . I began (and continue) to ask Him to grow a deeper desire within me for our time together in the mornings, so that I would not have to drag myself out of bed, but rather I would get up excited to spend time with Him. He is faithful...Waking me earlier, blessing a shorter time with greater richness, helping me to teach my children to respect my quiet time with Jesus when they awoke. Sometimes they would crawl up into my lap and lay quietly until I was ready. Those moments of early interruptions have become fewer and fewer, leading all the way up to this point, where most mornings I am now blessed to have uninterrupted time with Him before I even leave my bed. I am certainly thankful, but the Lord showed me today that those early interruptions are never wasted moments. It wasn't, and isn't, about me. Sometimes it is for our children. My two youngest boys often wake up to find their daddy sitting on the sofa reading his Bible, and they too are learning to respect his quiet time, sometimes crawling up on his lap to wait until he is ready. This morning he needed to go to work earlier than usual so it was me who was sitting on the sofa when my youngest came in. He crawled onto my lap and said "What are you doing?"
" I am praying."
"What are you praying about?"
I recently pulled a wonderful book off my shelf that I read long ago and started it again called The Power of A Praying Wife. I showed him the book, "I am praying for Daddy."
He wanted to know more so I began to tell him all the things I was praying for his daddy... his job, his mind, his purpose, etc.  Eventually I said "I am praying that daddy will make wise choices."
With complete confidence he replied "Oh, he will definitely do that!"
"Do you think so?"
"Yes!"
"Yes, I think so too. Do you know why he is able to make wise choices?"
And with wisdom well beyond his young age he replied, "Because he prays to God and reads his Bible."
Amen!