5:00 a.m.?!

I think you all know me well enough to realize that I don't get up at 5:00 a.m. for anything except a flight to somewhere fabulous. Not so today! The Lord woke me at 5:00 a.m. and I surrendered to Him about 8 minutes later.

Dave leaves by 6:15 and he has been waking me each morning. I usually lay in my bed with one eye open, check my email, daily news, facebook, etc. It takes me a good hour to get up on most days. I have really been struggling to get up and see my Bean leave for school. She is up by 6:00 and leaves at 6:47. I have managed to get up, hug her, pray over her, and wish her well just before she leaves on most days. Actually, I need to do that now...I'm back.

I have been praying to have an easier time to get up and the Lord has been helping me. I actually have had alert times around 6:00 a.m. on most days, but I usually ignore them and go back to sleep. So why do I ask for help if I really don't want it? I will have to ruminate on that for a while...asking for something righteous (early study, family, exercise) and not REALLY wanting it. Sleep is a stronghold for me I guess. I need to have God explain this all to me.

Anyway, I did get up today and went right to get my scriptures, that's how awake I was. Miraculous. I did a little highlighting and realized I need to redo some of my indexing. Here are the topics I am working with right now. I have really just started on this aspect of my studies. I have about 20 scriptures marked, my scriptures are still a bit too pristine.

1 Agency/Choose/Will

2 Apostasy/Pride/Apathy

3 Atonement/Repentance

4 Born Again/ New/Baptism

5 Character of God/Names

6 Doubt/Fear

7 Faith/Courage/Action

8 Humility

9 Joy/Cheer/Happiness

10 Love/Charity/Service

11

12 Mercy/Grace/Rescue

13 Miracles

14 Peace/Comfort/Hope

15 Praise/Gratitude

16 Prayer/Cry Out to God

17

18 Sacrament/Sabbath

19 Revelation/His Word to Me

20 Rock/Foundation

21 Suffering/Adversity/Trial

22

23 Speak/Tongue/Mouth

24

25 Talents/Gifts of Spirit

26 Teaching/Testimony

27 Temples/Covenants

28 Trusting God/Patience

I have loved memorizing scripture. The selection I am working on now is pretty difficult for me, but I will persevere. Our family scripture goal has changed for this year and so far we are seeing great blessings. Our previous goals have consisted of trying to read a chapter a day or something similar. We have had mixed success, but little understanding of the word was found in our children. As I prayed about making the scriptures "live" in me I was led to memorization. Why not use the same process for my family? As a family, we have begun memorizing a scripture a week. Once we choose a scripture, we write it on our bathroom mirrors and we discuss it all week. It has given us opportunity to dig into the meatier scriptures and write God's word on our hearts. I also discuss with the family other scriptures I am studying or memorizing. It's just been a short time, but I feel very blessed and guided.
It is almost 7:00 p.m. and I have survived the whole day. I am amazed. My day has been blessed and I attribute it to our scripture study. In my home, I have found greater peace and my children are being drawn to know God better. It is my greatest hope to think that my children will learn to love God and seek Him each and every day.