I went to a conference recently that encouraged and challenged us to seek God each day.  The speaker said we often give God our “first fruits”(meaning we tithe the first 10% of our income) of our money but we don’t give God our first in regards to our time/calendar.

He challenged us to give God the “first fruits” of our day meaning give God some time in the morning. I often think I will get to my Bible reading, journaling and prayer but the busyness of life squeezes it out and before I know it, it has been weeks and months since I have been intentional in actually sitting down with the purpose to read His Word, listen and pray.

We were challenged for the next 30 days to sit with God first.  Prior to this I had been working out with Jeremy(trying T25) and then trying to have my quiet time with God.  But often the kids would wake during our workout and then I do not have silence anymore and my time is not my own at that moment.

He said something that stuck with me, “The Bible verse says, “Be still and know that I am God”, it does not say, “Hurry up and know that I am God.”  And that is how I had been approaching meeting with God.  Hurry up, squeeze in 15-20 and be done.  But I barely had time to finish my reading let alone journal or pray.

So I decided to get up a little earlier and have my quiet time and then at 6am do our workout.  And if the kids wake while working out that is ok because they can get their own cereal if needed.

This has worked out so much better for me.  Not daily but Monday thru Thursday most weeks. I would love to do 6 days a week and taking Sabbath off and do it later in my day.

A quiet time focused on God can look a million different ways and you have to find what works for you but if curious this is what I have been enjoying with mine:

• read through my gratitude journal(trying to write daily something I am grateful about that specific day) and sometimes add to it.  My tendency is to grab it during my day and jot something done.
• read my daily Bible reading(currently doing a read thru the Bible in a year app) 
• pick a verse and do my SOAP journaling(search soap on blog if curious)
• prayer(I have a journal with personal requests, family and friends.  Then I have another journal with things I want to pray for people in our church.  Sometimes I also use these 2 cool books to pray from: Praying God’s Will for My Husband and The Power of a Praying Parent.
• this is my ideal but lately pressing snooze or I just dont get to it all.  But resolving to not snooze anymore.