{This post is part of my 31 Day blog series Work Hard + Rest Well: Learning Obedience in the Rhythms of Work and Rest.}
“Whether we’re morning people or night people there is something we all share in common. We need sleep.”
Day 20
I was at coffee with a friend last week, sharing the struggles I’m having with my schedule. I like order and structure and routine, but God has called us to a life that has very little of that.
My own work schedule is different every day of the week and my husband’s work schedule even more so. And I feel like I’m constantly fighting with my sleep schedule and that day I was feeling particularly tired and frustrated.
And she said, “Maybe you’ll just have to become night people.”
I think I wailed back, “But I want to be a morning person.”
I love mornings.
I love getting up early.
I love the freshness of a day at dawn.
I love checking a million things off my todo list by 10 am.
But my husband is a part time assistant pastor and part time shift supervisor at Starbucks. We moved to Florida for the sole purpose of helping start Redemption Church, so we very intentionally orient our lives around that, because that is what God has called us to do. Most church services and events and ministry opportunities at our church happen at night.
And I’m learning even though God wired me to be a morning person, He might be calling me to die to myself and become a night person. At least for right now, for this season.
“It’s not really about the discipline of getting up early; it’s about the discipline of going to bed early….people who usually struggle with getting up early in the morning want to stay up really late. This is not a moral issue…I don’t really care. What I care about is that you be intentional and choose it.”
Michael Hyatt
So what will you do with your sleep?
What will you choose?
Get up early?
OR
Stay up late?
It’s up to you and what God has called you to in this season of your life. It’s not something that should just happen to you. It’s a decision that you need to make intentionally.
We don’t choose to be morning people or night people because that is what is popular…or we shouldn’t. We choose our schedule based on what God has called us to.
I’ve tried to be both at the same time. And I’ve ended up exhausted, sick and practically useless for anything. The difference may not be as drastic for you, but the difference exists.
God gave us the need for sleep and we should not ignore it.
In fact, we should rejoice in it and use it for His glory.
Be blessed
<3
