Three nights ago I was trying to go to sleep when I got an idea.

A very appealing, wonderful, exciting idea. So exciting in fact that I had to get up out of bed at one o’clock in the morning to act on it.

I had lain there for a half hour with thoughts swirling in my head:

“I need to start getting up earlier so I can get the kids up earlier.. so they can help feed the chickens and water the plants, but I can still have time for quiet time and coffee before they wake up…”

“I need to start encouraging the kids to have their own quiet times, too, I need to do a better job of teaching them in that area and setting an example (and letting them see it..)…”

“I’ve got to put my foot down on our habit of getting up and going straight to the computer and the tv.. we had stopped doing that.. what happened? Oh yes.. I was covering the tv with a sheet before bed and I got out of that habit..”

And suddenly it came to me (it may have been Holy Spirit inspired I’m not taking all the credit!):

“A basket. I need a basket. With bibles and prayer journals and allegorical children’s stories. Books for all of us, and books for us to do together. I can cover the tv at night and encourage the children to use the Morning Basket to start off their day…”

And the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I wanted to do it. I had to do it!

“I already have a spare basket, I know just the one. We have several story books and we all have bibles. I can pick up some inexpensive journals at the dollar store and I already want to get A Girl After God’s Own Heart and A Little Girl After God’s Own Heart for the girls.. I need to read A Mom After God’s Own Heart… we can do it together!”

And the more I thought about THAT.. the more I itched to get the books headed on their way to my house so we could begin as soon as possible! And knowing that I was just TOO excited to go to sleep at that point… I did! I got up out of bed and I ordered the two books for the girls to go with my book that I already had. And after ordering them and jotting down a few notes I was finally able to get to sleep — with a great big smile on my face!

The next day, Saturday, I told the kids about it. They started to scoff until I told them all the details and promised that I’m not going to be on the laptop, either. I’m going to spend the morning WITH them and we’re going to do it together. So Saturday we put together our Morning Box with the supplies that we already had and Sunday morning we started our new tradition. Drama Queen didn’t want to read but I didn’t push it. Princess slept in too late and I didn’t make her get up any earlier. This morning was even better. I got Drama Queen interested in a children’s devotional book we have and I got Princess up earlier than yesterday (and then she read the devotional book, too.) Later when we had to run to town we picked up journals at the Dollar store. I let them pick out one they wanted and when we came home, Princess immediately sat down with hers and her very first Visual Prayer. When our other two books arrive they will be going into the basket, too.

And it makes me happy. I’m so hopeful. =)

We haven’t been doing this long enough yet to say it’s a wonderful thing or that it’s working for us, but I certainly think that it *could* be. And my prayer is that it would become a wonderful family habit for us. Though I have to admit, I’m reconsidering the name “Morning Basket” because I don’t want to  limit it to only morning time! On the other hand, the kids have already pulled books out at other times of the day and I just made sure they put them back. So maybe it doesn’t matter. ; )

And ONE MORE THING:

The book I started reading two days ago? A Mom After God’s Own Heart? Guess what the very first thing it tells me to do is… any guesses?

Little Choices That Reap Big Blessings

1. Develop a Template For Your Weeks – She mentions fine tuning what is going on in our home to truly put first things first. To make sure that my children and I all have enough time for a daily bible (or bible story) time.

2. Analyze Your Tv Time – She says, “think about how you could use that time to grow in your knowledge of God, to put better things into your heart and mind, to pray for your family to follow God.” And she also applies this to our children.

3. Choose a Devotional Book – “Select a devotional book for yourself, and one that’s age-appropriate for each child. Then set aside a special time each day for enjoying these books.

4. Memorize One Verse – Memorizing one verse a week is something we already do (most weeks) during homeschool.. I’m tempted to move the memory verse box into the Morning Basket instead?

5. Pray for Your Heart – Give it to God, offer it each morning, and pray for the hearts of your little ones!

Oh my goodness!! Do you see how I’ve done all those things in the process of establishing our morning box? Each night since then I’ve prayed over our morning time and our hearts and each morning for the past three mornings my alarm has been going off 15 minutes earlier as I move up our morning schedule so I can have quiet time alone before I have quiet time with them. And then after I set up our basket I choose THIS book to start reading and it all lines up so well with what we’re trying to do here — coincidence? I think not.

I’m very excited and very hopeful and I cannot wait to see what our morning look like a week from now, a month from now, a year from now!

What about you — I want to know what your quiet time looks like and how you involve your children, how you encourage them in their devotions and which devotionals you recommend. What about the littles that can’t read and what about serious prayer and study for yourself? I’m always open for good book recommendations!

One week down. 7 Days. 168 hours. TWO books of the bible already!

Well.. almost two. Me, I’m actually a smidge behind. I’m halfway through Exodus and I was supposed to be starting Leviticus today! I thought I’d be able to sneak in lots of reading time today and get caught up… (excuse me for a moment while I go laugh hysterically.)

TODAY WAS A MONDAY FOR SURE!

Last week was really busy and crazy, school was full — and I was sick, too! But I still managed to almost keep up and I’m going to get caught up over the course of the week. I will!

Things I’ve learned about this endeavor already:

1.) I do better when I read at least a few chapters in the morning, and read the rest at the end of the day.

2.) I really like reading on biblegateway.com and listening to the audio as I read along with the words. It helps me pay attention, and the narrator doesn’t read it monotone or boring, he adds feeling to the words. (Sometimes I read out loud to myself, but he’s a better actor.) ;0)

3.) I should go ahead and get that full size ESV study bible I’ve been wanting.. my pocket bible is great but the tiny print isn’t ideal for reading ten chapters at a time!

Other thoughts:

4.) Even though it was last summer that I started reading the bible through (and made it to Deuteronomy before getting out of the habit)… it feels like it was just last month that I read Genesis and it all feels so fresh in my brain. At the same time, I noted several details that I didn’t remember or didn’t notice before. So. All the more reason to re-read and re-read, right?

5.) Genesis is RIPE with lessons for today. Who says the Old Testament isn’t relevant? Among these are: “A half truth is still a lie” as Abraham learned when he lied about Sarah being his wife and said, “Besides, she really is my sister.” I had at least 3 others but alas, I didn’t write them down. Which leads me to #6.

6.) I should write things down. I need to keep a notebook handy for jotting down thoughts as I read. Reading ten chapters at a time, if I think of something at the beginning of the reading, I’m likely to forget by the time I get to the end.

And that’s pretty much it for this week’s wrap up.. My brain is really fried from all of today’s Monday-ness. And I still need to read at least 10 chapters in Exodus tonight! (Or more.)

For more Bible in 90 Days participants, check out Mom’s Toolbox.

It’s true that practice makes perfect, and that applies to more things than handwriting, cooking and hobbies. It applies to right thinking, too.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8

It’s not easy, at first, to change your habits in thinking. The angry retorts, the selfish tendencies… they slip in so easily. We are so well rehearsed in those things, they come up immediately.

But we CAN change them. We can change our first thoughts. At first we have to practice intentional thinking, perhaps after our first or second or even third thought.

But as I said, practice makes perfect (or at least practice brings improvement) and eventually you will find yourself responding in thought with love instead of anger, selfLESSness instead of selfishess, giving instead of greed.

I can assure you that it’s possible. I surprised even myself a few days ago when my husband consulted me on a matter and before answering I thought to myself, “now what is the RIGHT thing to do here…?” It’s an isolated incident; it’s far from “perfection.”

But it’s progress.

You find the word “firstfruits” in the bible a lot, God wanting our first and our best. We’re taught in church to tithe first, off the top, instead of giving to God out of our leftovers. We’re taught to seek Him first at the beginning of the day instead of “penciling” God in somewhere later when we don’t have anything better to do. Yes, we’re also taught to seek him continually throughout the day, and to give more than just the tithe, but there’s a lot of talk about FIRST.

First, first, first.

On the other hand, we also know that God was displeased with Cain because even though he did bring an offering, it either wasn’t his best or his heart wasn’t in the right place. And we know that God instructed His people to choose the BEST lambs as sacrifices.

So God wants the first, best part of us, our day, our time, our everything.

But what if my first isn’t my best?

Now I’m not going to argue tithing to God first or making him first in my heart. What I struggle with is giving God the “first and best” part of my day. The first part of my day IS NOT the best part of my day. In fact the morning if often my worst and the last part of my day is definitely my best.

I was at my best at meeting with God daily, praying most fervently, studying His word diligently (and learning the most from it) during high school and college when I had my quiet time at the end of the day before I went to bed. You know, before marriage and kids. Getting married changed the pre-bedtime routine as you can imagine. I played around with my routine trying to find a good fit. Prompted by marriage and parenthood and encouraged by friends from church, I have tried to have a morning quiet time. I just can’t stick to it.

For years I have struggled with making my quiet time a regular habit. I  keep up with it a while, I fall out of it a while. And to be honest with you, most of the time I don’t really feel like I’m getting anything out of the reading, like I need a crash course in how to study the bible because all I’m doing is reading a passage and then going on about the rest of my business. But that can’t be true because there are other times that I read God’s word and He reveals truths to me and teaches my heart and I walk away feeling FULL. I just never feel that way in the mornings.

I have tried so many things and I’ve gotten to the point of wondering, and then back, and then returned again: Do I REALLY have to do this in the morning? Am I just beating myself up over not achieving something that MAN has decided is the way things should be? Or am I just trying to justify my lack of self-discipline by claiming the morning routine is just a form of legalism and instead I should just be praying harder that God would make me a morning person?

So do I? Have to have a quiet time in the morning? Because honestly I don’t feel like my quiet times can possibly be all that pleasing to God as they stand right now – either non-existent or non-intimate. And honestly I feel like I have the best time with God when I am cleaning my kitchen in the evening and listening to worship music or a sermon online. I know that those can’t be all I do alone, that I need to read and memorize God’s word, too, but I try (or plan to) do that in the mornings and well, we see how well THAT is going. I just always feel like there’s this “pressure” to fit into this mold I don’t fit into.

Do you have any testimonies in this area, encouraging scriptures or sermons you’ve heard or books you’ve read on this topic? Inquiring minds and late night owls everywhere (or at least in this house) want to know.

Countenance isn’t a word we use much in everyday conversation, and I’m not sure why. It’s a great word. It says, “the way a person looked like they were feeling” all in three little syllables.

I’ve been thinking about MY countenance lately. I know that I am a positive, usually cheery, very friendly person. I also know that most of the time, I don’t LOOK like it.

I squint a lot, sometimes even when I have my glasses on. Squinting automatically gives the impression of being disagreeable. It was worse before I got my glasses again. Imagine me, singing on the worship team, squinting at the monitor trying to read the words — and looking grumpy while singing praises to God!

I frown while I think or ponder things – even if I’m not thinking about something unhappy. I might be trying to think of a good gift to give my husband but you’d never know it by looking at me. I often realize in the middle of listening to a pastor that I’m frowning at the pastor! I immediately try to switch to something that appears like interested listening, but I’m sure most of the time I look like I’m disagreeing with what the pastor is saying!

When daydreaming, I stare off into space – often in the direction of some other person without realizing it. It’s a little unsettling because I’ll suddenly realize I’m staring at somebody (probably with a frown on my face!) and then try to cover it with a big smile so they don’t think I was glaring at THEM. Oy.

And then there are times that I just flat out am not really thinking of anything or feeling particularly anything and for some reason just don’t have a very happy look on my face. I often caught myself, while nursing or rocking one of my children, staring at their little face, not really thinking anything, and then realizing that I probably looked unhappy while staring at my child – not the picture I want to present. It’s a good thing that very young infants haven’t learned to interpret facial expressions yet.

I don’t think there are any direct biblical passages talking about keeping a pleasant face. But I do know that there are other passages that speak of our character and our witness. And I’ve come to the conclusion through these experiences that I’m not giving a good impression of my character and witness if I have a sad or grumpy countenance.

If you think I’m grasping at straws suggesting some kind of biblical support for pleasantness, consider the practical applications as well. More times than I can recall, my countenance caused some kind of issue with my spouse. My frown was misinterpreted and my husband felt like I disagreed with him when I really didn’t.

Imagine how many confrontations you could avoid by keeping a pleasant face. Imagine being remembered by your children, spouse, and other people you met as someone “with a kind face.”

When I think of Jesus, I imagine him with a kind face. We know there were a few times he got angry at sin, and I’m sure there were a few times he felt sad, but I’d like to think that most of the time he had a kind countenance. He was after all, sinless, and there would have been no cause for grumpy, unhappy or disagreeable looks.

I realize that most of the time I make grumpy faces unintentionally, but no one else knows that. It gives the impression of things that aren’t there, and that’s the part I don’t like. I don’t want to give the IMPRESSION of sinful attitudes – especially if they’re not really there!

So how can I work on keeping a kind countenance? It’s something I think about frequently, and whenever I think about it I give myself a countenance check. I think it also takes practice, like keeping good posture. So I practice keeping a pleasant countenance while listening to my children tell something, while teaching them, while talking with my husband…. I haven’t mastered this yet, but I’m betting that’s the big one right there: Practice, practice, practice. I’m hoping that with enough practice, over time, it becomes a habit.

Amber

Most days I get this feeling; a feeling that I’m not making the most of my time.

Lunch time gets here before I know it and I have barely accomplished anything in my day. I’m convinced that if I could make use of that time to get things done then I’d be able to get enough done in my day, yet I’m not convinced or motivated or something enough to actually make that a permanent change.

Some days I’ll wake up on time and make breakfast on time and really get a good start on my day. But it seems like I can’t cross over from “some days” to “daily habit” or even “most days.”

It’s holding me back.

I know it. I see it. I’ve GOT to manage my time wisely! Even though I’ve scaled back to a tiny little salad plate and what will fit on there, I still feel like my plate is full and only half-eaten at the end of the day.

There is SO MUCH else I want to do! (And I’m not talking about writing novels or knitting scarves – I’m talking about bathing my children and ironing my husband’s clothes.)

Proverbs 6:6-11

6 Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
8she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

That pretty much says it all, don’t you think?

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