Waking up for my kids, and not to my kids

Towards the end of the school year I was so excited to be able to turn off my alarm clocks (yes, clocks. I had three of them set to go off every fifteen minutes.) and be able to sleep in. However, what happened was that my kids and I were so used to waking up at a certain time that we STILL woke up at that time. I would try to go back to sleep and my kids would pop up like daisies, ready to get the day going. Inevitably, I was waking up to my loud children and starting off the day in a  pretty crappy mood. After a few mornings, my kids started sleeping in a little later, and a little later. I continued to wake up around the same time I woke up during the school year and- gasp- I actually liked it!!! I liked having that quiet to myself before the rest of the house got up for the day. Thanks to seeing a bunch of people posting on Facebook about it, I decided to download the You Version app and actually read some scripture and pray during that time. As much as I hate to admit it, I have had a serious lack of daily scripture and prayer happening in my life for awhile now. Going to church on Sundays is just not enough. That's like eating only once a week. It's not going to cut it. I had made attempts to get back into reading the word every day, but they always seemed to fizzle out. I love my big ESV study bible, but it's not the most convenient thing in the word to dig out, and I definitely feel like I need some guidance on what to read every day. I've been following the Soul Detox reading plan on my phone and am loving it. Not too short on scripture, but also not reading 6 chapters a day. It's right there on my phone, right next to my bed. I can wake up grab my phone and tap the icon.

This morning on Impress Your Kids, one of my favorite parenting blogs, she posted links to The Hello Mornings Challenge and She Reads Truth. Perfect!!! Hello Mornings is all about getting up before your kids so that you are waking up FOR your kids and not TO your kids. She Reads Truth is about spending daily time in the word and they are even following the Soul Detox plan on You Version!! I love how God matches things up like that. Both of them can be participated in simply by using the hashtags #hellomornings and #shereadstruth on Twitter. You can follow me on twitter and/or instagram to see what God is showing me each day if you'd like. My username is 405family on both. :)