Establish a morning devotional

Wow it has been nearly a year since I wrote anything here. Establishing my morning devotional is still important to me. Over this time I have learned that in order to do something like this especially if you are not naturally an early riser, you got to really want it. You have to be disciplined to roll out of bed even when your bed is warm and comfortable, even when you wake up and wish you could just have 15 more minutes. That 15 minutes turns into 30 turns into an hour and before you know it you’re out of time. I have noticed I can flow naturally into a devotional after I work out, but my workout is usually in the evening and there is nothing wrong with doing it in the evening, but I would really like to start my day off with God. So, I gotta get disciplined. I gotta get serious because it’s important and no doubt the time spent will be a reward in and of itself.

I had a great devotional this morning. I spent the entire 15 minutes in worship – which is really exhilarating and just plain awesome when you feel God move over you and in you. :)

Yesterday, I also did a devotional – I spent that time just writing.

I’m giving it another shot. This time as part of a morning routine which dovetails with my goal to be more organized and productive. So for the next few weeks I’m going to give it a shot…my routine will be (and this will be adjusted as I find what works)

1 – Work Out – 15 minutes
2 – Shower – 15 minutes
3 – Devotional – 15 minutes
4 – Read an additional book 15 minutes

I hope to increase my times in both the work out a read and the devotional, but I want to start out small

I didn’t make that list happen, but I’m going to keep trying :)

7 days straight – 20 minutes

-Jon Gordon’s 11th Minute Miracle –
-Read the Word
-2nd Prayer
-Listen to a podcast and/or all of the above.
-Read a Christian book.

Starting tomorrow – 5/16/08

After getting 8 days – 2 days from my goal of 10. I choked. I woke up extra groggy on day 9 and couldn’t push myself out of bed. I had planned to get some time in that evening but was super tired and ended up going to bed early. So….I didn’t make it. I’ve got 1 month without sodas…aaghh….

I’ve been thinking though it won’t be such a bad thing. I’ve got to work on my energy levels and cutting out sodas should help with that. And I’m not giving up on my goal of having an hour of power. It’s not really spending the hour b/c once I get up the hour goes by pretty quickly. But it’s the getting up. I’m going to break it down and then build it up. 15 minutes to fulfillment…start with 15 minutes then work up to 1/2 hour, and then 45 minutes, then 1 hour. At 15 minutes, even if I get up late I could still have time to get 15 minutes in ….

Nothing like last minute progress. I’ve got 7 days down, heading into 8.

I said this was important to me and now I putting action behind it. I am a soda-holic so if I don’t complete 1/4 of this goal by March 31, I am off sodas for 1 full month. The most I’ve gone without a soda is 1 week and it was tough, tough, tough…so here it is. Basically I need to complete 1 10 day challenge. Let the games begin….

Well, I fell off after those 4 great days…I’ve been trying to pick back up, but for some reason I just can’t get up and focus, but I’ll try it again :)

I’ve had 4 straight days of morning hours of power. Technically some of those were not “hours”, but I’m counting because I got up and did what I said I would do. Each session is getting better and better and I believe this will greatly help me with my relationship with God.