Before....and....After

I have a ritual...upon arising every morning I greet my husband over a cup of coffee...and anyone else who happens to be in our home.
Then I, immediately, read my devotions.....about 4 of them....some light and positive, some with great depth and thought provoking. Often I will look up the Bible reference and meditate on its application to my life and the life of my family. Sometimes Charlie and I will comment on what we found important in that morning’s devotion. I then read the local newspaper, chatting off and on with Charlie. Sometimes I stop to take a phone call or place one....usually to our children.
This is the usual chain of events.....even when we go to the boat but without the newspaper part. I find that I MUST start my day with the right thoughts.
This chain of events happen at 5 or 6 a.m. or at other times it can be 7:00 am. Always being an early riser....7 a.m. is late for me.
Then off to the computer...checking e-mail and writing a ‘thought for the day’. When there are early morning appointments or running around in traffic-laden Tampa Bay....I just get up earlier.
You may say....”How boring!....Who really cares?”
The rest of the story is this......
......This ‘ritual’ didn’t begin just yesterday. It has been my discipline for years.....little Carla at 5 or 6 years of age (she is now 17)would often get up and come out with her little “Precious Moments” Bible and say so sweetly....”Can I please study with you?”
We would then read something from her little Bible and talk about it in her language.....Today Carla has much this same ritual. She does her devotion before going to school and no one tells her she must. When Charlie and I took her to Cocoa Beach for our “Special Week-end”.....she lay in bed doing her devotion before taking her “forever shower”....
What a blessing.....
Oh, yes, I am blessed to see the forward process in this simple routine of morning devotions being NECESSARY......to the continuance of....
A Good Life!