Good Morning and Good Night!

Are you a morning person or a night person? I am definitely a morning person. If I wake up too late, I feel like I have missed out on something. I find it very difficult to lie in bed although when I make a deliberate decision to stay in bed longer and just rest and relax, I do feel the benefit.

I love the anticipation a new morning brings, do you? The beginning of a new day. A day full of new opportunities. It’s like opening a present, not knowing what is inside and the excitement of peeling back the wrapping paper. O what a gift to be given another day to live!

The other day I was in Greggs at a service station and as soon as I walked in, I could smell fresh toast.  It was on a morning and it stimulated my taste buds and my mind and it got me thinking of smells and things that reminded me about mornings. I began thinking about coffee and bacon sandwiches and waking up fresh after a good night’s sleep. The feeling of stepping outside before anyone else is awake to see the sun come up and I love hanging the washing out on the line early on a morning to make the best use of the good weather.

It is so satisfying knowing that no opportunity has been missed. Preparing breakfast and setting the table to include fresh orange or apple juice and tea. Leisurely reading the newspaper and listening to the birds sing and feeling the fresh new dawn air on your face is so refreshing and awakening.

Beginning the day with God is what I try to do each day. Usually before anyone else is up I make myself a cup of tea and sit with God thanking Him for this new day and for waking me up. I put the days events into His hands and ask Him to help me to hear His voice as I read the Bible and pray. I often use a devotional reading to help me.

You can find the below verse in the Bible.

This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

So, what about night times? I used to be a night time person but as I have become older, I am just too tired on an evening. Once it hits 9pm I am ready to start preparing for bed. When I was younger at home with my parent’s I can remember being wide awake at 9pm and not wanting to go to bed.

When I was school age my Mam used to make me hot milk before bed. I would sit quietly on the settee drinking my milk hoping my Mam would forget I was there and would not notice the time. I remember that as soon as the 9 o’clock news came on TV that was it! My Mam seemed to suddenly remember me sitting there and say, “Right its time for bed young lady!” and so my plan to remain invisible evaporated and off I went up to bed.

My sister Christine and I shared a bedroom when we were younger. I remember she used like to knit. I could not drop off to sleep because of the noise of the knitting needles tapping against each other. My sister would say to me, “Just one more line!” Then 20 minutes later I could still hear the tapping of the needles. She probably done about 30 lines but I had not idea how long a line took to knit so I just had to try to be patient. O such childhood memories!

My Mam used to go to work on Saturdays at Clarks shoe department in Jopling’s Sunderland. I would do the housework while she was at work. On Friday nights I can remember doing the dusting before I went to bed because I was wide awake. You wouldn’t catch me doing that now! My thoughts about dusting now, is that it can definitely wait until the next day!

Its good to look back at how I saw things as a child and how things used to be and then see what they are like now.

I am usually willingly getting ready for bed by 9pm compared to when I was a child and wanted to stay up late. Obviously getting older!

When I am not too tired, I usually spend some time thinking about the day’s events and I try to remember to thank God for being there for me. If there is anything on my mind that is worrying me which there usually is, I write it down in the back of my journal. I have a section I have called ‘God’s car park’. I began doing this a long time ago and it helps me to place the things that I need God’s help with into His hands. I try to leave them in God’s hands and it helps me to not worry about them and just trust that God will work everything out.

You can find the below verse in the Bible.

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Isaiah 26:3

I hope you have enjoyed reading and I hope that it may inspire you to think about what morning means to you and I also hope you have a good night’s sleep and not stay up doing the dusting!

God bless