Hindsight

It's amazing how often I go through things and don't stop in the moment to analyze how God might be working.  Before I went to Arizona, I had two prayers for myself.  One was that, out of my routine, I would stay committed to studying His word every day.  And the other was that I would watch my mouth and not speak before thinking.  These two things often go hand in hand, and I know how much they are connected.  The less time I spend in the Word, the more I seem to speak carelessly out of my own desires rather than with God's desires in mind.

Every day I was in Arizona, I woke up between 7:00 and 7:30.  There was not a single day that I slept past 7:30.  This is unusual for me, because usually the longer I'm on vacation, the more relaxed I am and the more I can sleep in (up until about 9:00).  But that was not the case this time.  Sometimes I was frustrated with this because I wasn't going to bed super early, so I felt like I was not getting enough rest.  Fast forward to after I got home.  The four days I was off after getting home, I managed to sleep until 8:30 or 9:00 every day.  It was then that I realized that the Lord woke me up between 7:00 and 7:30 every morning because it gave me about a half an hour before the chaos of the day would begin and I was able to spend some focused time in prayer and Scripture reading.  Once home, I was able to do that later in the morning because there was not as much going on.   Sometimes I laugh at how easy it is to forget that God will answer my prayers if I just ask Him!  Thank you Lord for your caring and protection over my life!