In the instant of waking

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
~ Anne Bradstreet

At church on Sunday, no less than 5 different, dear friends asked if I felt well, since I looked so tired. Yes, I feel well, but I am very tired. I had somehow hoped it didn't show so much how very weary I still am. But it does, and who better to notice than my brothers and sisters in Christ?

I need to pull out my old friend Henry Scudder and review his pointers for starting the day with God. It seems that the mornings are toughest for me, and no matter how well the night has gone, I struggle not just to wake up, but to face the day without tears and feeling overwhelmed.

In the instant of awaking let your heart be lifted up to God with a thankful acknowledgment of his mercy to you. For it is he that giveth his beloved sleep, who keepeth you both in soul and body while you sleep, who reneweth his mercies every morning. For, while you sleep, you are, as it were, out of actual possession of yourself, and all things else. Now, it was God that kept you, and all that you had, and restored them again, with many new mercies when you awakened.
~Henry Scudder, The Christian's Daily Walk (Sprinkle Publications, 1984) p.29

So for this season, I guess I am preparing to welcome days of more energy ahead. But in the midst of this season, I need to discipline my thoughts and not allow them to run away with me and rob me of proper thankfulness to God for his mercies. So, starting again tomorrow, I will make my first thoughts of God, as the Spirit enables me.

Won't you join me?