Spiritual Disciplines

My mother used to sing to wake me up in the mornings.  I still cringe as I write this — oh, the horror of it!  I have flashbacks even now.  Just for the record, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a morning person.  However, for some years now I have been getting up at a forsaken hour of 5am (give or take 30 minutes) and I do this so I can practice my spiritual disciplines.  I pray, read the Bible, read a theology book, and now write.  Because everyone else in my house is still asleep (lucky them), I also get to practice the discipline of solitude, if even for a short time.

I initially started getting up early in order to study when I was finishing my degree.  Having three young boys in the house, all doing various sports, it was the only time I had when it was quiet.  Being older, it was all I could do to stay up until 10pm, so staying up after they went to bed wasn’t really an option for me.  Besides, that was about the only time I had alone with my husband.  I also learned pretty quickly that if I was going to be able to keep up with my crazy schedule, I had to commit time to the Lord.  This time became and still is a lifeline for me.  It centers me, it balances my life, and it helps me to keep God in the forefront. 

You might be saying to yourself, “What are spiritual disciplines?”  In short, spiritual disciplines are actions that we discipline ourselves to take on a regular basis in order to connect with the living God.  Donald Whitney, in his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (which I highly recommend) says, “The Spiritual Disciplines are those personal and corporate disciplines that promote spiritual growth.  They are the habits of devotion and experiential Christianity that have been practiced by the people of God since biblical times.”  For me, spiritual disciplines are my defense against the world.

In the time frame I was attending school, stressful enough under any circumstances, my husband got very sick.  He was unable to work much of the time and was hospitalized several times.  But for the grace of God, he might not be among us today.  I can wholeheartedly tell you that without my morning devotional and prayer time, I would have certainly lost my sanity.  I cried out to God and cried to God more times than I can count.  I prayed, “God make me strong,” and he did.  I promise you, I could not have gone through this difficult season without the help of my Lord.  I am not that strong…but he is. 

We made it through that difficult season of our lives and my husband is now living with chronic illness – emphasis on living.  Thankfully, my anchor of morning quiet time has stuck with me and here I am at 6:30am drafting this post.