Early Morning Swims and Daily Devotions

After watching The Great Gatsby and eating tons of popcorn and candy last night with Kristen, I had the urge to go for a swim the next morning. Sure enough, I set my alarm for 5 am, and went to sleep as early as I could. The recreational pool that I usually go to is open at 7:30 for an hour and a half. Why would I wake up so early, you may ask? I figured I'd need lots of time to eat before I swam, so I decided to give myself plenty of time to do so. Maybe a little too much time. Being me, I actually ended waking up at around 6 and it took me less than ten minutes to eat. So there I was, at six in the morning with an hour before I'd actually leave. What was I to do?

The night before, I thought about getting back into doing daily devotions. I've always struggled with devotions and reading my Bible on a daily basis. I would make excuses to myself in order to get out of having to do them. One day I would be too busy, another day I would be too tired, or I would be reading another book instead. But today, I had no excuses.

Last week, a girl at my christian fellowship at school brought a monthly devotional book for everyone. I thought I wouldn't end up using it, but when I looked inside, I saw that it wasn't the type of devotional book I was used to. There was a bible verse, reflection and prayer, but what caught my attention was a question at the end of every day.

As I waited for the sun to rise, I opened up the Living Truth devotional book and turned to today's page. Here's another thing about me and devotions; I don't like to do them in order. I read today's page, answered the question, and closed the book feeling unsatisfied. I still had plenty of time though, so I picked it up again and started reading the titles of days I had already missed in the month. I considered giving up and reading another novel instead, but one page actually looked pretty interesting.

Because I knew I was doing a bad job at reading my Bible, I read the devotional titled THE BIBLE. It talked about how the Bible was not just a book, but a library, filled with real people, places, parables, poems, poverty, prophets, and politics. But it's not just another entertaining story, it's God's word! I've been spending more time reading fictional stories than I have reading His word, I feel like I'm missing out.

The next time I wake up too early, or have a few minutes to spare, I'll try and work on my devotional habits and bible reading. I might not read it in order, but I think that will be better than making excuses to not read it at all.