Create a Rhythm - When You Rise

We have steadily walked our way through this verse this week and have attempted to discover the ONE THING that we could do at home to be more intentional about connecting our family with God. We have had great fun with 'Red Light Thankfulness' this week as our girls are getting into saying something they are thankful for when we stop at a red light. We have set a new rule with this one though, we have agreed that we need to be specific about the things that we are thankful for.

The final installment of this verse is "when you rise..." and today we will consider ONE THING that we can do in the morning time to encourage our family to connect with God and to connect with each other. I know that not everyone is a morning person, and that there are also a number of people living in our metropolitan area who leave home at an unearthly hour just to make it to the office in time. regardless of whether you have a crazy early morning or the opportunity to take some time, we can all use some encouragement to be focused. Our morning times are pretty intense - three mornings a week I am gone from the house before my wife and kids are up, and the other two days I have the great chance to work from home and so I can be a part of the routine.

There are lots of things that must be done before our school or workday begins and some of those things are not really the time to be trying to memorize bible verses. It takes enough energy to try to keep my 4 yr olds hair out of her cereal in the morning let alone trying to teach her some biblical truth. One thing that has to happen every morning is that our kids need to put their shoes on before they go out. So, Julie had the great idea that she would get six small photo frames from that famous Swedish furniture store and print out six attributes that our kids can read as they put their shoes on. So each morning there on the wall in front of them are these six pictures. When we get a chance we try to go over one or more of the verses or attributes and remind the girls of what they have read.

The other thing which Julie has implemented with our girls is that on the drive to their school they all take turns and pray for the day. This has become so much a part of the routine that one day last week when I drove the family to Cara's school, we didn't pray - I did not know the rhythm. Julie felt a little off after the short trip to Cara's school when she realized that we didn't pray. I had hindered the rhythm. The lesson we learned from that trip was that we both need to know the rhythm, even if we are not normally involved with a particular aspect of it. So now, if I take the girls to school we pray on the way there - its our rhythm.

So how are your ONE THINGs coming along?