Maximize Your Mornings

God has really been putting a lot of things on my heart lately and I am dying to share them but I really am not even at a place to put most of it into words just yet. Most of it deals with being more intentional with my time, as a woman of God, wife, and mother. I take my job seriously, but sometimes I get my priorities mixed up. Often times cleaning and housekeeping come before all of those other things and, well, while I FIRMLY believe that housekeeping is important, when things are not prioritized, all things tend to crumble, and while we are doing ok in the Bolte house, I see great room for improvement.

My goal here is to be a woman of God, a woman who has a passion and fire for our Lord, who is in the word daily and is living out the life God called me to live. I want to love Howard well and completely, I want to raise my children to love and fear the Lord and I hope to live out my life in a way that allows me to be the hands and feet of Jesus, living by example and not just by words.

One of the WORST times of day for me is morning. I am ashamed to admit it but in our household, our mornings go a little something like this...

6:50 a.m. Howard gets up and gets ready for work

7:10 a.m. Howard leaves and Hope wakes up.

7:11 a.m. I begrudgingly get out of bed to get Hope, I get her a drink and we snuggle on the couch and watch the morning news.

7:30 a.m. I go in to wake Luke and then go out to make his breakfast

7:35 a.m. I go in and remind him to get up.

7:40 a.m. I now coax him out of bed in a less than pleasant manner. ;)

7:45 a.m. Luke gets dressed and I continually ask him if he is done

7:50 a.m. He sits down and begins to eat

8:00 a.m. It is time for Luke to brush his teeth but he has still not even started eating

8:00 a.m. Luke crams as much food in his face as he can

8:05 a.m. Luke brushes teeth while I put his shoes on him.

8:10 a.m. I help him get his jacket on backpack on and out the door

The bus picks him up sometime between 8:13 and 8:16

I then begin getting the little ones breakfast and dressed for the day

At this point I am already out of steam. I feel like I have wrestled a giant and lost. I have sent Luke off to school all the while barking at him to move on to the next task. I feel like I send him off with a less than stellar start and I begin my day feeling defeated. It sets the tone for the day most days and I want better for my family. I don't want to give them what's left of me, I want to give them the best of me.

I have been praying on this for a while now, unsure of where to even begin and I feel like the Lord has really been telling me that I need to get up earlier. BEFORE everyone. I need to get myself up and together and right with the Lord before encountering my family and their needs. NOW, this is hard for me. I am a night owl by nature and I LOVE to sleep in. Hope still is NOT consistently sleeping through the nights and I am more than tired in the morning. I also struggle because we live in a small home so if I get up early, it tends to then wake everyone else and then I feel like my initial effort has been negated.

I have been fighting Him tooth and nail on this and coming up with every excuse in the book and I feel like today it has sucker punched me in the face. Every verse I went to, every click on the computer brought me to the conclusion that it is time. It is time to change my ways and get my hiney out of bed. EVEN if everyone else wakes up ten minutes after I get up, I will have at least had ten minutes to pray and get up. I will set myself right with the Lord and begin my day with Him so that He can shine through me the rest of the day. I will make my husband coffee and be sure his lunch is ready to go before he is up, I will send everyone off with a kiss and a smile, so that their days start in a way that will help them set the tone for a great day.

I came upon a blog today that I have fallen madly in love with. It is called Inspired to Action and the author there has started a Maximize Your Morning Challenge. I LOVE this idea, because for me a huge tool to keep me on track is accountability! I need others to hold me accountable. This week's goal is SIMPLY getting out of bed early. I would love it if you would check out this site, download the ebook and join us on this mission to become passionate homemakers who put God first, first in life and first in the day. If you have a blog, be sure to link up! I am so excited to see how God uses this to make me a better, daughter of Him, wife, and mom!