Why I Choose a 4:30 am Wake Up

The alarm on my watch went off, buzzing and beeping on my curio cabinet safely out of reach from me hitting the snooze button and staying in bed.  I was snapped out of a dream about being at Disneyland and going down the last drop in Splash Mountain and thinking that my kids should be here and experience this ride.  With a poof, the dream was gone, and I groggily got out of bed and stumbled to the watch and pressed a side button, silencing the alarm.  The trick was not to go back to bed, I would go back to sleep and would miss out on my precious alone quiet time, so I walked into the bathroom and emerged a few moments later then headed to the kitchen where I made myself a cup of tea while the rest of the house slept.

I willingly choose to get up at 4:30 in the morning, most mornings.  I started doing this about 3 months ago in an effort to get more time in to do my Bible reading and writing uninterrupted before I had to be at work at 7 am.  Waking up that early got me about an hour and a half of solid quiet time, even the dog merely glances up from where he’s laying to look at me as I pass by him on my way to the kitchen.

I’ve learned that it takes me about a half-hour to wake up.  I used to immediately jump into my Bible study with a cup of tea but I don’t remember much of what I read and my tea would get cold as I focused on my reading.  Now I’m in the habit of waking up, making myself tea (or coffee if I feel like it), and sitting on the couch drinking my tea (or coffee), tasting it, not gulping it, and by the time my beverage is gone I’m awake enough to do my reading or writing, or whatever I want to do before the family wakes up and the noises they make permeate the house.

I have grown to look forward to this time of day as it’s an opportunity to do what I want to do when I want to do it.  My days begin on a positive note, as I’ve already crossed off 2-3 items from my to-do list.  No matter how the rest of the day goes I can say that I was able to do the things most important to me because I got up early and did them first thing.