When was the last time that you woke up in the morning excited to get out of bed?
When my three year old daughter, Sage, wakes up in the morning she never rolls over begging us for five more minutes of rest. She never even wakes up, and slowly climbs out of bed only to mope into the living room. Sage jumps out of bed, and hurriedly runs into our room full of energy and excitement to start the day. She can't wait to, go for a run/watch "Little Einsteins"/eat breakfast/sit with her mom & dad. And this excitement doesn't begin when she wakes up, she goes to sleep excited about the routine activities that will take place the following day.
At what point in our lives do we lose this joy?
How do we go from experiencing joy in the morning as children, to dreading the sunrise as teenagers?
Is it possible for us to, as adults, look forward to the day to come with the same enthusiasm as a three year old?
Am I excited to see how God is going to use me today, and on an even more basic level:
Am I excited to live another God-given day?
5 comments:
I don't know if excited is the right word here for us. Sage is excited because ALL she has to think about is her fun activities ... not how much laundry there is, what we are going to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner, where to find time to take and shower and clean up after breakfast, lunch and dinner, etc. On the otherhand, we are grown adults with real responsibilities ... So, I think it is more correct to say, "Will I experience true-God given joy tomorrow, despite the many things that need to be accomplished -- the mundane tasks of parenthood, etc.?" I count the "excited" feelings as an added plus, just as I count feeling "in love" with you as an added bonus to already loving you.
p.s. I guess I could smile a little more in the morning though instead of grumbling as I normally do -- esp. pre-caffeine.
I know what you mean...Amber Shea asks me often, "Mommy, after my nighttime nap, what are we doing?" (I don't know who started calling bedtime a "nighttime nap"?) Anyway, she wants to know what's on tap for tomorrow, and then--as Sage does--she gets out of bed EVERY morning ready for the fun day ahead.
I, on the other hand, am NOT a morning person. I look forward to nighttime so I can stay up late (like now) and blog and watch videos and veg. BUT I DO wake up excited and ready to go once a month on Scrapbook Day. So does that count? : )
Seriously, I understand what you mean. I loved what you wrote...it was so right on! Am I going to look forward to what God has in store for me when I wake up or am I going to "go through the motions" of meing a mom for yet another day! Wow, thanks Ryan, for the "WAKE UP CALL." : )
Beth Moore says that someone once said to her about her zeal for God, "You'll get over it," to which she responded, May God usher me home before I accept an ongoing lifestyle of spiritual mediocrity! She also asks a tough question -- Have you grown casual with God? Honestly, I am not sure if my first thoughts in the morning (or last thoughts at night) have been about how God will use me the next day.
In a Beth Moore video (I cannot remember which one!) she says that she used to say to her girls the first thing when they woke up, "This is the day that the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!" I thought it a good suggestion, so I have been trying to sing that when the kids get up in the morning. Let me just say, it is a little harder after having been up several times in the night, and only sleeping a couple of hours. But still, a much better way to start the day. This morning (after such a night with not much sleep) the kids kept saying, "Sing the song mommy!!" I just had to ask for a couple of minutes...
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