Jan
7
52home
Filed under Biblical Womanhood | 52homeA new project as an excuse for some extra caffeine. Yep! 
52home
A new project as an excuse for some extra caffeine. Yep! 52home
In case you missed it, at the end of last week we launched a new 5 O’ Clock club Facebook page. A simple page with a simple goal: to help encourage women to rise early to meet with God and serve their families. We’ve been having such fun (yes, fun!) reading comments from different ones of you as you seek to grow in this area, especially the different verses from God’s Word. And we love to see the diversity of times that women have set as goals—all with the same great purpose.
So if you haven’t already, grab a friend and join (or rejoin!) our little club. Its not too late to make the New Year’s resolution that can make your other resolutions possible. Here are a few testimonies from club members to encourage those of you on the fence.
~Kat~
As I write, I am wrapping up my morning meeting with the Lord. In ten minutes, the oldest of my 3 small children will come bounding into the office where I have been studying and praying. Like many others that have written to you, I enjoy the warm comforts of my bed and do not enjoy getting out of it! A few weeks ago I clicked onto your blog and as I began to read the stories of women rising early and carving out that time in their day, it made me cry. I struggle with finding time to study and pray—for years my husband has been gently encouraging me to wake up early to do this, but for some reason I couldn’t do it until I saw the stories of other mothers that were doing it. Not only is it such a blessing throughout my day to have my eyes and heart fixed on Christ from the start, it is such a blessing for my five year old son to sneak up behind me each morning and see an open Bible on my lap; he usually pulls down his illustrated Bible and cuddles up with me for a few minutes. My prayer is that he would remember these times throughout his life and make it a tradition of his own! I am prone to inconsistency, so even as I write, I am praying that this will become a lifelong habit. Thank you for sharing your club and for encouraging a even a sleepy sinner like me study and pray when I would usually be in bed!
~Holly~
I wanted to share with you how joining the 5 O’clock Club has benefited both me and my husband. I recently joined in order to provide myself some accountability in getting up earlier to have some quality time with the Lord. Both my husband and I read our Bibles and pray, but the birth of our son this past year and new jobs have led to our schedules being turned upside down. The Lord has not always had the priority or quality time that He has deserved. So, now I have consistently been getting up earlier these past few days to read and pray in the living room. After a day or two of doing this, my husband (unknown to me) got up right after me and started spending this time praying in our bedroom. He later mentioned to me, “You should email that girltalk blog and tell them that your getting up early to have devotions has encouraged me to get up early and pray.” He teasingly added that he couldn’t have his wife taking the spiritual leadership in the family! My husband most definitely is my spiritual leader, and he shepherds me very well. However, I am thankful that we both now have an organized, planned, deliberate, and personal time with the Lord each day!
~Marcia~
And of all the wisdom shared in Feminine Appeal, one of the single greatest practical influences it has had on me is this habit of rising early, and seeing the value and joy of doing so. Rhythms of life, with now three young children, keep changing, but this single element of my life holds like an anchor and is precious to me. It is not the habit itself that is inherently precious, but the communion with Christ that it has enabled for me and in me. Rising early is no guarantee that I will have sweet communion with Christ. But, practically speaking, rising early is the greatest guarantee that I will have time in the day for communion with Christ. And by His Grace, rising early has been a tool leading directly to that end, and thus of invaluable worth. Thank you for your continual encouragement. I smile to look over the long list of fellow women in the 5 O’Clock club. Kindred Spirits. All praise to Christ.
Whenever I have been a complete slacker and need to rejoin the 5 O’Clock club, I’ll ask my mom or sisters to keep me accountable. We’ll call or text each other at the time each of us wants to wake up. A little encouragement really helps with the endless excuses I create for pressing snooze!
Today we want to provide you a little extra encouragement as well. We know it is a few days past January 1st, but we thought we would still throw up this 5 O’Clock Club Facebook page to help ourselves, and any of you who want a little extra help waking up early.
It’s simple really, we’ll post our “rising early” goals and you can too. Then each morning at 5:00 a.m. we’ll put up a verse or thought. Then you can simply comment on that morning’s post with the time you woke up. You can even add a picture of your coffee mug or Bible for all to see. Best of all, ask a friend to join you and tag them in your comment for some personal accountability.
As you already know, you don’t have to wake up at 5 o’clock to join the club—just early enough to spend time in God’s Word and serve your family. For all of you who have signed up at our website, don’t worry, you’re still in the club—just join us here if you can. And if you are new to the idea, we suggest you take some time to read past posts, including testimonies from women who have benefited from the club.
See you at 5 o’clock a.m. tomorrow, right here!
Last night, before trudging upstairs to our loft bedroom, my husband and I placed an old fashioned alarm clock, set for 5 o’clock a.m., in the narrow hallway between our children’s bedroom doors. Then we set our phone alarms for just a few minutes earlier. If we failed to wake up to our phones, we would risk waking up our four energetic children at 5am. Talk about motivation to get out of bed in the morning. It worked.
Why in the world would we do that? Are we crazy? Maybe, but not in this case. Waking up early is the most important New Year’s resolution I have ever made or will keep making. It is the resolution that makes all my other resolutions possible. So whenever I slack off for a time, which often happens over the holidays, I resolve to rejoin The 5 O’ Clock Club.
By getting up early, I can make the most important things most important. And that means communion with God comes first:
“I earnestly recommend that [Bible reading and prayer] be in the early morning, unless there are some extenuating circumstances,” writes John Piper, “Entering the day without a serious meeting with God, over his Word and in prayer, is like entering the battle without tending to your weapons. The human heart does not replenish itself with sleep. The body does, but not the heart. We replenish our hearts not with sleep, but with the Word of God and prayer.”
Oh, does my heart desperately need replenishing every day.
The 5 O’Clock Club also serves my family. Trust me, the day gets off to a much better start when Mom has had a quiet time, made necessary preparations for the day, and maybe even taken a shower, than when I am groggy and grumpy, groping for the coffee pot as a try to field twenty questions at once. That’s just reality, folks.
Now trust me, I’ve opted out or slacked off countless times, especially when I’ve had babies or newly adopted children come into the home. A solid night sleep is essential to successfully rising early and I don’t suggest this to make anyone feel discouraged or condemned. But if you can get up early right now (even if you don’t think you’re a morning person!), consider this a friendly challenge. Just imagine what you’d get done in a day—in a year!—if you woke up half an hour earlier than you already do.
I know it might be January 2nd , but it is not too late to start. Do something crazy in 2013. Join The 5 O’Clock Club.
Alas, mommy’s phone went for a swim.
“I believe it ought to be our continual aim and desire to go forward, and our watchword on every returning birthday and at the beginning of every year, should be ‘more and more’ (1 Thess. 4:1): more knowledge, more faith, more obedience, more love. If we have brought forth thirtyfold we should seek to bring forth sixty; and if we have brought forth sixty, we should strive to bring forth a hundred. The will of the Lord is our sanctification, and it ought to be our will too (Matt 13:23; 1 Thess. 4:3).” ~J.C. Ryle
Our first Kentucky snow. 
