Thoughts Collected

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but lately it seems my thoughts have been very uncollected.  By that I mean, just randomly floating circling darting around in my head.  There's been SO much going on with me and around me it's been very difficult to just focus.  Today is the first day I've had a glimmer of focus in months.  And until today, I couldn't figure it out.  Here's why.  You ready?  It's a MAJOR revelation.

I've been sleeping in.

As a homeschooling mother of 3 children with 2 additional at home jobs (not to mention youth pastor's wife), this is NOT OK.  I need my rest, but I need my QUIET time with my Lord even more.  I've been in the Word and praying, but in spurts during my day, if my day doesn't get completely turned upside down, which happens pretty often.  I know better than this, and the Lord has been dealing with me about it for a while.  I've just been putting Him off.  It's so easy to just roll over and snuggle up in those warm blankets in the morning.

Last week I was very sick, and this week I've been recovering.  My husband has been so great, taking care of EVERYTHING.  But for the past couple weeks I haven't spent any quiet time with him.  Sure, we've talked, communicated the necessities to each other and stuff, but I realized yesterday just how much I missed spending quality time with him.  There's been plenty of quantity, but not much quality.  And I realized that's EXACTLY how I feel about my time with the Lord.  Quantity just isn't going to cut it for me.  I NEED quality time.  Quiet time.  Intimate time.  And that's just not happening when the kids are up.

I got up at 6:30 this morning and got a little bit of quiet time.  It should have been about an hour, but of course the first day I get up early is the first day in months my kids have awakened before 7:30.  But that's ok, I'm believing for them to sleep later tomorrow (and every day after that).

That hour of sleep just isn't worth the uncollected thoughts and the missing Him.  Today has been a very busy day with lots of things on my to do list (including paying 178.50 for a speeding ticket I got a couple months ago for putting the pedal to tha metal at a whopping 35mph. yep), but it has been one of the best days I've had in months.  I feel very focused, and very collected.  I'm not saying my days still don't get turned upside down, but when I give God the first part of my day, He helps me with the rest.