Getting Back Into A Routine

Spring semester is the busiest semester, with Wesley events, sporting events, retreats, and then fitting school into all of that, it becomes pretty tiring. Spring break comes at just the right time, and Work Project this year was so incredible and so much fun. We got back from Crowley, Louisiana on Thursday and the majority of all the Wesleyites go back home to visit family for a few days. It wasn't until I woke up this morning and realized how much I lost my routine, how hard it was to wake up, to exercise, to remember what my schedule was. We are all so busy, and go, go, go and then Spring Break is a time to relax and we get off our usual routine. We eat whatever we want because we are on vacation, as a Wesley student put it; everything is calorie free when you are on a vacation, or having a bad day, especially chocolate. The ability to follow a normal long-lasting routine requires more than just self-discipline and determination. It also requires the establishment of habits. We need to get into the habit of waking up at a certain time, and following through with our morning routine completing our most important tasks for the day before we move on to others. This is the same thing as our spiritual routines. Just as we can get into healthy physical activities like running, we can get into healthy spiritual routines like setting aside a time to pray or praise God. In Psalm 143:8 David says 

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go for to you I entrust my life.”

He is saying that the morning time is the right time to praise God and ask for His direction. The morning is, for the most part, a fixed schedule for every day. I know when I try to put this off for the night, I either never get them done and wait till the morning and/or last minute or I just don’t do it at all. This happens when studying for tests, writing papers, exercising, whatever needs to get done, but if I put it into my morning schedule I am more likely to do it every day. Like wake up, exercise, shower, eat breakfast, do my quiet time, get ready for work. Boom. Bang. Done. And if something goes wrong that day, or I don’t do one of those morning activities my day feels off. It took me ffffoooorrrreeevvver to get into this routine, it took me a few months but I worked out. Spiritual routines are the same way and could be compared to the habit of running. The more regularly you work out, the more you want to do it, and staying in shape is much easier that getting in shape. If you pray, read the Word on a regular basis it because a habit and something you look forward to and if you don’t do it every day, your day just doesn't feel complete. So I challenge you to make a habit of praying to God a certain time or having a regular quiet time and make a daily routine and devote time to God.

Lindsey R.