Get with the Program!

I try to blog once a month around the middle of the month.  Here it is the last day of January and I'm just now getting around to it.  Why is that?  I'm having a difficult time getting with the program, getting into the swing of things.  This month has been full of transitions.  School went from full remote to hybrid.  A few of the kids' after school activities starting meeting again in some form or fashion after the holiday/covid break.  Toby is transitioning from working full time and going to school to working part time and going to school.  I'm still trying to figure out how all this fits together.  

I've enjoyed a regular quiet time with God for years now, decades.  My parents encouraged it by buying me devotionals and I probably started regularly practicing time alone with God when I was in middle school.  My usual habit is to do it at night.  When the kids were little and napping, I'd do it during their naps.  A few years ago I tried doing it first thing in the morning.  I've heard a lot about starting your day with God helps to frame your entire day.  I gave this a try but it just didn't work for me.  I have trouble sleeping.  I find that my soul can rest best if I've just had my quiet time.  Then I can lie down and sleep peacefully knowing my Shepherd is near.  Also, I just don't want to get up any earlier to have my quiet time before I leave for school.  

I still want the benefit of framing my day in prayer.  So, at breakfast, I use 30 Days of Praying the Names and Attributes of God calendar put out by the Navigators.  It gives a different name or characteristic of God for each day of the month.  When I'm still waking up, I can praise God for that attribute and ask Him to help me portray it to those I come in contact with during my day.  Sometimes, when I'm awake enough, I also used this time to review my day and invite God into it.  Over the last few months, I've felt the Shepherd's gentle nudge.  Am I asking God to bless my plans, or am I seeking Him out to find out His plans for my day?  It's a good question, because my days the past few months have had many, many, changes in schedule.  Changes cause me to view life from a new perspective.  I have to find my focus, to fix my eyes on Jesus, from this new vantage point.  It's a good thing.  I'm learning to see Him more completely from every angle, but it takes time to adjust.  It was very confirming to hear Scott Porter talk about this in his sermon at GPC on 1/17/2021.  He titled it It is Hard to Repent When You are Already a Good Person.  He talked about his nephew taking time to ask God what He wanted him to pursue for a career.  I feel like I've settled that.  I felt God calling me into teaching when I was a teen.  But as Jarod Daniel pointed out in today's sermon, commitment in your relationship with Christ is like commitment in your marriage.  That commitment isn't a one time thing.  I'm committed to my relationship with Toby every day.  The same thing is true in my commitment to following Christ's leading in my everyday life.  He's my Lord in the daily decisions as well as in the big ones.