Proverbs 31: Week 4

First, I want to say that I am learning so much through this study!  This week, I was reminded of a very important lesson:  We need to listen if we want to hear God.


The Proverbs 31 woman gets up and out of bed before the rest of her family.  Why?  Because she needs to prepare for the day before the craziness begins.  The first part of being prepared is focusing ourselves back on God.

When I started this study, I assumed that I didn't need to do my short morning devotionals anymore.  But, I didn't do this study early in the morning, either.  This study isn't as easy effortless.  It involves looking up scripture (not already printed in the margins), writing out answers (where did I put that pen?), praying (something I didn't do as often with the other devotional)... it is just more effort!  More often than not, I would do this study in the afternoon, after most of my day was already over.  Hey, at least it was getting done!

When I realized I had drifted away from my morning quiet time, I prayed for discipline to get up early and do this study in the morning, "like I'm supposed to".  I had just bought Beautiful on God's Eyes by Elizabeth George to compliment this study so now I had the perfect plan.  Bad idea.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist.  I'm not a detailed-neat-freak-perfectionist... it's worse than that.  If something can't be done right, or "perfectly", I will put it off until it "can be done right" and it doesn't get done.  It took one day after my "new plan" for me to completely stop working through this study.

Thankfully, I have been doing the study with my mom.  My accountability to her pushed me to catch back up.  I haven't caught up in the new book I got, but that's okay.  I don't roll out of bed and do this study every day, but that's okay.  I do recognize that I need to start my day off on the right foot, with the right focus.  If the craziness of the day has already begun, I read something quick and easy.  If I'm up before the sun, I take some quiet time to dive deeper into the Word.

I am going to be more intentional this week by focusing on God in the morning, before my day starts.

One thing I can do before I get out of bed every morning is pray.  I took the challenge from Sheila Wray Gregiore to pray for my husband every day.  Since I've been remembering to love him with his love language (words of affirmation), I chose the challenge to pray for him more often.