Have you had your coffee today?

I don't know about you, but coffee is essential in the morning for me. If I don't get my coffee, I'm pretty much a zombie with the face that makes Grumpy Cat look happy. If I don't get my coffee in the morning, I will suffer headaches by the afternoon, and by that night I'm ready to be executed just to make the pain stop.

Yes, I'm addicted.

But there's something else more important that I used to struggle with; spending alone time with God. I see the things on Pinterest and my Facebook wall, like "Don't forget to thank God, because He remembered to wake you up this morning" and "Be the woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, the devil says 'Oh great, she's up'" and "God should be the first your morning and last in your evening". I feel the guilt trip that comes with it. Yeah, in the morning it seems that my coffee is more important that digging into Gods word and spending alone time with him.

In the morning, I'm up at the same time as my kids. That's about 6:30. I've tried to get up earlier than them, but I'm a night owl, and mornings are so hard for me to get up, because the night before my brain is so active. I think best when the kids go to bed for the night. I can plan better, I work on my crochet orders, I clean the house. My nights between 8-12 is when I'm active! It's my second wind!

One day it occurred to me. My alone time with God doesn't have to be in the morning! There is nothing that I know of in the Bible that says that my alone time with God has to be between 5 and 6 AM. So when do I have my alone time? Well, if you haven't guessed yet, it's at night! Just like my coffee is essential in the morning, my alone time with God is essential at night. It's when the kids are quiet, I know I'm not going to be interrupted  or have to stop because the kids are up for the day, and it's when I'm the most awake and ready to listen.

I belong to the Bible Institute. It's free and there are lots of things for me to study. I'm being taught by some of the best scholars in the modern Christian world. The fact that it's recordings, means that I can do other things at the same time, like working on my crochet. While I'm cleaning the house and being away from the computer I have BBN (Bible Broadcasting Network) radio on. I've been listening to BBN all of my life, and it has fed me as a child and now as an adult. When I'm in the car BBN is on. When the kids go to sleep, if I don't put on a CD for them, it's BBN radio they fall asleep to.

But that's actually not the only time I spend with God. I spend time with him all day long. Did you ever have an imaginary friend as a child? Remember talking them randomly throughout the day? Kind of the same thing with me and God. I talk with him all day long, because he is always here with me. I envision him standing in the room with me, to make it easier sometimes, but basically it's the same thing as prayer, except that I'm not closing my eyes. Being home alone with Thing 1 and Thing 2 most of the time, I need to be able to vent frustration, voice my concerns, and bring anything that else that is vexing me to his feet. I believe that if the universe is his throne, and the earth his footstool, then my problems can easily be handled by God. How awesome is our God that he wants us to just talk it out with him?

Then there are, thankfully, many more times that I catch myself singing to myself. It's usually a hymn that pops in my head, sometimes it's just the tune, but when I stop and think about it, it has to do with whatever the situation is, or with what I'm doing. I just love how God brings exactly what I needed to hear with my heart through a song learned in childhood.

I don't feel guilty anymore about not having that alone time with God in the morning. It's great if you can do it, because for some people it's a great way to start the day off on the right foot. But if you find that you just absolutely can not get up in the morning to have that alone time, don't let others make you feel guilty over it. God wants to have that relationship with you all day long, not just a 5 in the morning for a squeezed in 15 minutes. God wants to you be ready to listen to what he has to say, so if you're not a morning person, obviously you are not ready. Anytime is the right time to spend alone with God. There has been many times that the 5 minutes in the bathroom is a few minutes of alone time with God!

Now that I have you convinced that alone time is anytime, don't be afraid to have some alone time with God in front of your kids. I know, I know,...

WHAT!?

No really! Have some alone time in front of the kids! They need to see how important it is to have that time with God. When they see you having a couple of minutes with God they are asking themselves, "Why is it important". As they see you spending that time, they learn that God is always there to listen to them whenever they are tempted, full of questions, excited about something, God wants to hear it all! It is so wonderful to be the model of how to have the most important part of your day. 

So just as I make sure that I have my coffee in the morning so I can function physically, I make sure I've spent time alone with my Creator so I can function spiritually. 

Have you had your coffee today?

With Love,
Emily