Can you give me just 15 more minutes?
I whisper a prayer, grabbing my phone so I can slide the little button under my original alarm setting. I simply need more time to prepare.
Time to prepare so I could face another day of different.
As I lay there, I can’t go back to sleep as I had hoped. Instead, I begin to pray; asking the Lord to heal my family member who is sick, a job for a friend who needs to provide and a prayer for me. Prayer to have the discipline to get out of my bed.
Lord, help me to place one foot on the floor so that I get up and spend time with You.
The night before my daughter slipped into my room very late, needing a hug and some reassurance. She’s growing up, in fact, it’s almost time to leave home. As she prepares to be on her own, changes I didn’t see coming have been coming. There is a bit of hesitation; some trepidation. She needs her mom a bit longer.
Now, in the early morning hours, the 1:00 a.m. bedtime takes it’s toll. Still, I need to get up. I need these quiet moments alone with God before I have the busy moments with my family.
Getting out of bed to read my Bible and praying before my family awakens usually is not hard for me. But, lately it has been. Very hard.
I don’t normally struggle except when my girl has needed me late into the night. I’m usually quite disciplined except when I’ve tossed and turned the night before waiting for her return from a road trip. Usually I…the exceptions keep coming.
Discipline is easy except when it is not. Changes in one area of our lives can bump into the peaceful patterns we once set in place.
I’m squirming in this place of expected interruption. Expected because life always has interruptions. And so, once again, I need Jesus to help me be faithful; help me be faithful through the change rather than waiting to become faithful after the change.
It is easier to maintain a discipline than to create a new one.
So, in this place of change, we ask Jesus, who understands our frailty, to empower us to keep being faithful. And when we find our faithfulness has failed, to stoop down and help us to begin again.
Without judgment or condemnation, He will do just that. Listen to His faithfulness toward us in Hosea 11:4, “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.” (NIV)
Jesus, thank you for reaching out to me when I struggle to be faithful. Faithfulness is so hard because it requires me so often to say no to me and yes to You. Help me today to be faithful to what You are calling me to do. Amen
What area are you struggling in to become faithful? What small change could you make today that would help you to conquer this struggle?
Postcard from Boston
Faithfulness is one of the fruit of the Spirit. Maybe your girl struggling with learning faithfulness during this time in her life? Plan to go through Magnetic: Becoming the Girl He Wants this summer and together allow God to grow the fruit of the Spirit in both of you!
- What Do You Expect? - December 17, 2015
- The Best Time to Make Up Your Mind - November 12, 2015
- Mom – Never Give Up! - October 15, 2015
