Storms were coming. Another night of tornadic activity? I didn’t know. But, since I was husbandless for the night, I didn’t want to sleep through something major and put my kiddos in harms way. (I am notorious for sleeping through storms!)
Needless to say, the night was not very restful. And since I was going to be “manning the home station” by myself the next day, I decided to catch up on a some sleep and turn off the alarm.
This meant that my kiddos were up before I awoke. This meant that I was greeted with hungry faces before I was mentally, physically, and spiritually prepared for the day. Not a big deal, right? I mean, it was the weekend.
One hour into our morning, I declared an entire family time-out. Every to their rooms – Mommy included. I apologized for my behavior and explained that Mommy needed to read her Bible, pray and prepare for the day.
As, I was reading through I Peter for my quiet time, I read verse 4:11, “If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.”
Busted!!!
My words that morning were not anywhere close to the very words of God. Actually they had been closer to the opposite. I had been spewing out poison with my lack of patience and ugly tone.
Sleep is important. And, I can’t be the mom that I need to be without the proper amount of sleep. But in weighing 15-30 less minutes of sleep and time to prepare my heart and body for my day, the few minutes less of sleep is so worth it.
Lesson learned. Alarm clock, you are my friend no matter the grumbles that I make when you greet me in the wee hours of the morning!
How are your morning quiet times going? For more information on getting started, be sure to read my ebook, “A Quiet Time, Worth the Time.”
I seriously struggle with my ability to get up in the mornings for quiet time. I read your ebook and felt very convinced and convicted. But my 10 month old still gets up 2-3 times every night and yes I could go to bed earlier but my evenings with my husband are basically the only time during the week that we have alone together so I value that time as well. I've never been an early morning person and that doesn't help. I don't want excuses to weigh me down. Please pray that I can figure it out and not neglect my time with God!
I feel your pain. I struggled for a long time on this one too. I pray that God would give you direction to know what to do.
I have several blog posts about helping your child sleep through the night. Maybe you would find these helpful.
I encourage you to begin with just five minutes of quiet time each morning. I promise that you won't miss those five minutes of sleep. As you begin to make these few minutes quality time with God, you will begin to desire more.
Please let me know if you have questions, I will be glad to share with you what I have done as it was not an easy transition for me. My husband can attest…I fought it hard. Now I wouldn't trade it from the world!
Thank you for that. I will definitely check out those posts. I think we are hopefully getting closer and closer to sleeping through the night. Up until a few weeks ago he was in a co sleeper and when we finally transitioned to a crib it seemed like I was getting more sleep, but he is still in our room and can see us and there's no escaping him. 🙂 We are in the middle of getting his bedroom ready for him to finally stay in and maybe once we are out of sight he will stop being so insistent at night.