Early Morning Grace

I'm definitely not a night owl. I wouldn't say I'm a morning person either though. But more importantly, I am in the process of being a disciplined person.

Sometimes that means staying up late to read or write or prepare for the next day; most times that means waking up early to spend time with Jesus and write and mentally prepare for the day; and always that means fighting to not let my feelings dictate my actions.

I never want my feelings to take my mind, my speech, my heart hostage.

So that is why I'm trying to consistently wake up before I want to, before my body is ready to. And the beauty of being disciplined in one area of life is that it helps you be more disciplined in another. Being a disciplined person does not come easy, but beauty and grace abound in the process.

I'm learning that I don't have to happily jump out of bed when the alarm goes off. I just have to get up. And it is in the getting up where transformation happens. A slow, monotonous, hard transformation, but transformation nonetheless. And grace always meets you in transformation.

There is something sweet about meeting Jesus before you meet others. When the Word whispers to your heart before the world pulls for your attention, feelings are better managed and perspectives are more eternal. 

When you awake to grace, Truth walks beside you throughout the day.

The transformation to being a disciplined person takes effort and time, dedication and self-control. It takes strength to know when to say no and when to say yes. And that transformation is ultimately a transformation to be more like Jesus. And that, dear friends, makes it all worth it.