Guest Post: Starting your day off right
Guest Post by Cassie LargaespadaTime management is an ongoing issue in my home. Every time I think I have it all figured out, the Lord reminds me that I don't know a thing.
I have tried every method I have heard before and I still end up falling flat on my face eventually. I think that is the point for me. I try so hard to control my time on my own. I like being in control and I like knowing what is coming next. It's usually not until I am at the end of my rope and don't know why things are not running smoothly that Jesus calls me back to rely on Him.
Don't get me wrong, I think a schedule is necessary to survive the day. What I have to be willing to do is allow God to lead me in creating a schedule and be flexible enough to deviate when I hear Him speak to me.
One of the biggest time management tools I have found to be effective is starting my day with the Lord. Now, I am not a super early riser. I really try to be up before all my children but that does not always happen (I often awake to the sound of "Moooommmmmy!!").
I do, however, find it imperative to spend some time in the morning with Jesus. I have recently changed the way I do this. I used to try to do my quiet time before my children wake up so that it was actually quiet.
Now that my children are older, I have adjusted this. We now spend the first hour of the morning eating breakfast and getting ready for the day. Once everyone is ready, we all head to a room by ourselves.
My older 2 have their own Bibles and they spend their time reading their Bibles and listening to worship music. The younger 2 spend time listening to music and playing with toys. They all take some time to talk to Jesus.
There are a couple of reasons I decided to change this part of my schedule. One is that I just never got consistent with waking up early. When I did, I would find myself falling asleep while I was reading my Bible. The other reason that I made this change was I realized that when I did my quiet time in the morning, my children didn't see me spending time with Jesus. Also, I didn't make time during their day for them to spend time with Jesus.
Now, I know this may seem like a simple tip, but my biggest encouragement is to make time to spend with the Lord everyday! Ask Him to order your day step by step. Be willing to adjust your schedule based on what he brings to your mind.
George Mueller says, "Public prayer will never make up for closet communion... Although I enjoyed their fellowship (speaking of other believers), my soul needed food. Without it, I was lean and felt the effects of it the whole day."
I still am amazed at the difference in my day when I make this a priority. What is amazing to me is the days when I feel like I have more to do in the day than time to do it. When I choose to give
those days to God first thing, I am pleasantly surprised. I get to the end of the day and look around at my clean house, fed and educated children, laundry done and I wonder, "How did it all get done?"
I also see such a difference in my children when they spend some good time with the Lord, too. They tend to be more kind to each other and considerate. They seem to obey better (or maybe I am just less annoyed by the disobedience?). Their heart, in general, is softer and more tender.
I don't think spending time with God is a magic wand and makes everything in life easy. I do think that starting my day (and my children's day) with an ear to the Father makes all the difference in my perspective, motivation and attitude. So, however you organize
your day, start it off right.
-Cassie Largaespada is a homeschooling mother of four (ages 8, 7, 6 and 3). Visit her blog here.
I'd love to hear from the rest of you on a related subject: How do you encourage your children to spend time with the Lord everyday? Thoughts, ideas, suggestions? What has worked for your family?
Graphic from AllPosters.com
Labels: Faith, Finding Time
posted by Crystal Paine at 5:04 PM
19 Comments:
I completely agree that it is a great idea to have your kids see you doing at least part of your Bible reading and prayer time. Otherwise they don't see that example! I have one little guy (14 months) so currently I have a quiet time after breakfast time. He plays on his own while I read and pray. It works great for now!
This topic is near and dear to my heart! This was a great guest post.
I have much to say and didn't want to take up too much space. I do have a post on my blog about it and what we are currently doing:
http://ahighandnoblecalling.blogspot.com/2008/04/encouraging-children-to-have-quiet-time.html
I don't have kids to share this idea with yet, but I love it. I think it solves the problem of trying to get up before the kids and provides a great example for them. I'm going to remember this one! Thanks!
Great post. It is much appreciated, and I believe what she says. My husband and I just married less than two months ago and are working out our new schedule together and working on priorities. This was a good article to read :).
I absolutely love this idea!!! I have loved this entire series, actually. Thank you for addressing this!
This is a great idea - I'm having one of those "why didn't I think of that?" moments! No matter how early I get up (sometimes 5:00 a.m.), one of my three little sweeties is often up with me. Instead of giving up on my quiet time with the Lord, why not encourage her to join me with her own age-appropriate Bible?
I *love* that tip. I've often had that same thought -- that if I have my quiet time before my kids are up, they never SEE me modeling this. I would think that scheduling your quiet time in this way would also keep you accountable. After all, kids are good at nothing if it's not holding Mom accountable. lol
I think I'll be making some changed to my quiet time soon. Thanks for the tip.
Great post! I think one of the hardest transitions for me was going from an alone "quiet" time to a "quiet" time (which wasn't all that quiet) with my toddlers in a room with me singing and praying. I still try to have the alone time in the morning too, but I've resigned myself to enjoying the quiet of my soul when I joyfully worship the Lord with my kids. It's good to know that they are seeing this modeled in me with them even at a young age.
When I start my day worshipping in song with my 5 and 3 year olds, even if I haven't had that "quiet time" alone with the Lord, I always feel encouraged and at peace with the direction my day is headed.
Thanks
Sheila
What a wonderful new outlook on this. I have been really struggling with getting up early to do quiet time and get ready and all that before my kids wake up. My baby can have a unpredictable (well he is just being a baby) night time and I am just so tired in the mornings. I feel like I really have to PRESS so hard to read and pray. I do agree that it is important to connect with God in the first part of your day though.
I love her comment on...."They wouldn't see her spending her morning with the Lord." I loved this point.
I loved how her children are being taught to spend time with God themselves with God's word and worship music. This makes it to become a desire from their own hearts not a parent making them.
Great post!
What a great idea and one I plan to use in the future! I so appreciate this post you did! I have never succeeded with the early morning or late night quiet time either and so currently I am doing my devotions with my two little ones in the morning after their breakfast. We do some Bible reading and an ABC character lesson book and catechism-type questions and one of our 21 Rules of this House. Then I usually read an additional prayer devotional on my own and sometimes we sing songs together and then I pray for anything and everything on my heart aloud. Sometimes I'm frustrated that my devotions are cut short by their short attention span. I may have to try the playing with toys and listening to music approach and having my devotions in the living room while they play. They always see Daddy doing his in the morning before work, which is great!
Thanks again for the tips!
I am up by 4:00-4:30 to see my husband off to work. I usually try to do my quiet time before I go back to bed, but often the littles interrupt and it doesn't happen. For my older children, I make personal Bible time part of their school. They are required to write a summary or answer questions that I prepared about their Bible reading. They are also required to do the same thing for a character building book with a Christian emphasis. Pleasure reading is up to them.
For the littles, we have a large library of good Bible story DVD's and music.
We also do a group Bible time, after breakfast, where I read a Psalm, some Proverbs, work on the memory verse (which is also the handwriting assignment for the week)pray and sing. If the littles are in the room, I make sure to read an age appropriate Bible story to them, too.
Dad pretty much does the same thing at night, with a different Bible passage and a missionary biography read aloud and an historical novel read aloud as the kids are settling down for bed.
I don't usually feel too shorted if I miss my personal time, but there is much to be said for spending personal time at the beginning of the day to see it through in a God honoring way.
Heather
I'm not a mom yet, but just wanted to say when I was at Dollar Tree a few days ago I saw that they had CD's Children's Devotional that looked so cool!
I truly agree that we should lead by example and not preaching.
Our days always work best when we remember to start them off with a family devotional.
I wake up the children, allow them to eat breakfast and change their clothes (if they like) and then before we officially start school we have our devotional.
We sing a hymn, say a prayer, read scripture and on Fridays we also say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the National Anthem. (I believe that my children need to learn that patriotism is needed. And that our forefathers were inspired men of God.)
If we have a day where we wake up late, or I have extra errands to run and want to finish school early and we forget to do our devotional; without fail, the children are grumpier, or I'm grumpier, or we don't get things done in as timely a manner. It just never goes as smoothly if you don't start the day off right.
Thank you so much for this very freeing post! I have felt tremendous pressure to be up before my kids in order to have quiet time, but with a baby that still wakes at night a few nights a week and my husband working overnights (so I handle all the night time wakings) I'm just not able to get up before my toddler who rises at 6:30 no matter his bed time!
My heart has really struggled with this very topic- thank you so much for the timeliness of this post!
I can not agree more! We school year round and are currently one of our breaks. When we start back May 1st we will begin a new school year. I had already begun thinking about this...I was planning on going on with my usual routine of getting up light years before the kids and doing my study and prayer and then getting them up. However, we bought my 2 oldest kiddos (8 and 6) brand new bibles for Resurrection Sunday. I started going through their Bibles and noticed that there was a writen daily bible reading *just* for their age........then I noticed that my oldest was starting to get up with me in the wee hours of the morning to study.....I began to think .....this is nuts! Why don't we make this a FAMILY study time??? It is so funny you wrote about this Cassie as this has been going through my mind for about the past 2 weeks! Thanks!
Angela
Thanks so much for this post. I feel I've needed more reminders to start my day this way. It truly does have such a great effect on our lives!
Jia
www.modernmollymormon.blogspot.com
I try to get up before the kids to get myself ready for the day and study the Bible on my own. I try to be consistent. But I also have made a habit of reading the "Proverb of the day" at the end of breakfast. We've also read backwards through Psalms, and we've read Acts, and we're currently doing a chapter a day in Ephesians for this next month or so, because we really need to be reminded especially of Chapters 4, 5 and 6! :)
Before we're excused from the table, I ask each child, "What was your favorite part? What part stood out to you? Was there anything you didn't understand?" We don't always have time to answer all the questions, but it usually results in very good teaching and training opportunities, and the kids pay attention. We sometimes come across verses that we know are songs, and we break out into singing! It's a great way to get their day started. Plus, it gives me SOME time in the Word, especially on those days I missed my own personal devotions.
One thing I appreciate about my Mom is the memory I have of "catching" her studying her Bible during the day when I was small. I do hope that's something my kids will catch me doing as well. (And I hope I don't snap at them and drive them away because I just want my time alone with God! Sometimes I can get pretty desperate!)
What a beautiful post! Thank you for reminding me of these truths that i KNOW...I just seem to keep forgetting! In addition to what you said, I think it is very important to do scripture study as a family...so you can can talk and testify to each other and build and strengthen each other. Also to ask questions and be able to see that we (our family) all believe and live the way Jesus wants us to.
I have to admit this was a wonderful inspiring post! Thanks so much!
Bev
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