Getting up early.... for two things: QT with my God, and exercise!

The best time to start was last year. The second best time is right now."
--Seth Godin, business guru and author of The Dip.

I have been struggling with something that I see as important. As part of my leave, which I "officially" began yesterday, Feb. 1 - there are for sure two things that I want to do.
1) make an appointment with God in the early portion of my day, that is non-negotiable. In other words, that nothing will detour my time with God, or bump it, or anything. I have an easy time spending quiet time with God... because I love spending time with Him. However sometimes I fit it in at the end of the day, and really, I feel that I want to give him the firstfruit of my day. I want to do this NOT so that I become legalistic, or that I can "check" it off the "things to do" list - but rather that I can get my fuel from God for my day and all that it holds.

2) exercise! Okay, most people that know me well, know that exercise is something that I like the idea of, but find it hard to do. Last year I got to running 30 minutes straight. For me that was HUGE! Then, I stopped. Not sure why, but I did. I also go to CURVES but that is hard when I am not in the city daily anymore... I also like to walk, and my husband has made a beautiful cleared walking path in our "back 40"... and I like to do my "dance pad" to praise songs (which I did today).... I like the idea, but find it hard to stay committed to anything. I also find that if I do this first thing in the morning, I am a happy camper! It's like "whew, got that done, now I can relax and enjoy!" Plus doing exercise first thing really gives me energy.

I think the quote on the top of the page is good.... I can not do anything about the past, but I can do something now... I have likely talked about this on my blog before... and my kids, well, they know my thoughts. I have shared with God that I think He is impressing on me the need to get up early and just do it! He even wakes me up, but I have refused to get out of bed. Gotta figure that out! I hate "quenching the Spirit" - it is just hard to get out of bed when it is so hard to sleep during the night!

So, that is my predicament. I am not an early person, but I want to be. So this will be my prayer, that with God's strength and energy, I can get up when He wakes me up, and that I can meet with Him, and spend time in exercise too, and get on with my day. I feel that this is important to me while I am on leave, and learning to be. I feel that this is part of the process. And now, that I have written it down on this blog, I realize that someone just may ask me how it is going....

There is a verse in scripture, I forget where, but it says, "with God's strength I can scale a wall.." I figure with God's strength, I can do this. I feel it is about surrender, about laying down of self. May God be my strength.