Spiritual Alarm Clock

One of my new favorite blogs is ABBA Stories written by Becks (please stop by and check it out). When I first read her blog's title I thought she must be an ABBA the music group fan. I got a little smarter after finding out that she is really an ABBA fan (Am I the only person who did not know this?):

Where he found people calling upon God with abstract, distant titles, Jesus introduced a homely, personal word, Abba. This word, important to the earliest Christians, translates simply as father; but it is actually slightly less formal than that and contains a flavor of familiarity and trust. (Read whole article here)

Bible Dictionary: A personal, familial term for father as used in Hebrew. It is Aramaic for father, and in Talmudic times was used as a title of honor. It was used in the language of Jesus and the apostles, and later by Greek-speaking Christians, as an intimate name for the Father in Heaven. See Mark 14: 36; Rom. 8: 15; Gal. 4: 6.

Anyway, her blog posts are absolutely lovely. I never come away from there without feeling enlightened, inspired, or wanting to be closer to my Heavenly Father. I also love her humor and her candid honesty. Recently I have been in love with this post that talks about making a very personalized cleaning plan for your home. I will post about what it has helped me do later. Today I want to highlight something that Becks said, not in a post, but in one of her comment streams in response to the question of how to become a morning person. Here is Becks' solution:

Becks' How To Become A Morning Person:

"This first method I used for about three years: Step One: Give birth to a kid who's a morning person. Step Two: Feel guilty for letting the kid wander around the house unattended for hours. Step Three: Let guilt drive you to the action of getting up.

"I used this second method for about a year: Step One: Start getting up early via the old-fashioned alarm clock method. Step Two: Fall asleep on the couch at night from the sheer exhaustion of having been up since 5 am.

"This is my current method of waking up in time to do everything: Step One: Ask God to wake you up however many minutes before your kids do in order for you to have however much time He thinks you need to spend with Him undisturbed. Step Two: Obey. (God frequently embodies our cat to accomplish His answer to my "Will You please wake me up" prayer).

"This is the method I'm going to assume as soon as the outlet situation in our bedroom is resolved: Step One: Set the alarm for 5 am. Step Two: Go to bed at a decent hour.

"And this is the method I'm looking forward to adopting in just a few short years: Step One: Wait for your kids to grow. Step Two: Go back to being a night person."

Now, I've used the prayer method many times when I had a very important reason to wake up at the right time and it really truly works. I can also testify to the fact that Heavenly Father often uses interesting ways to answer this prayer (thanks to the person who decided to call me at 7am on this lovely Sunday morning so that I could indeed get all my church stuff done before the kids woke up instead of sleeping in next to my warm husband... who is still sleeping, the lucky dog). But I had never thought of using it as a means of running my daily life (oh me of little faith).

This week, along with a lot of other changes I am making, I am going to put this to the test. I will let you know what happens =).

Oh, and another great blog that Becks runs is Something Good where, instead of ranting about how your husband didn't take out the garbage AGAIN, you can brag about all the wonderul reasons why you love him. Today's topic is what makes your husband a funny daddy. So, if you have something good to say about the man you love, get over there and share it.