First Things First

I am not a morning person. When the alarm goes off, I am the lady burrowing deeper beneath the covers until the last possible second. I am the one with the bed-head, fuzzy slippers and the “don’t mess with me for at least an hour” face upon waking up. Recently when I was in Disneyland I saw a t-shirt that I almost bought. It had a picture of Donald Duck with his fists pumped like he was getting ready to face Mike Tyson. The caption underneath said, “I failed anger management.” Whoever it was who designed that shirt must have been thinking of me. I don’t do mornings.

Because I have such a hard time getting up, I got in a dangerous habit of checking email first before I do anything else. For some reason it’s comforting, like I’m reconnecting with friends and family before my day gets underway. I have a chance to see what I missed while I was making dinner, spending time with the kids, and sleeping. The funny thing is, most of the time I haven’t missed much of anything because everyone else was doing the same thing I was. What makes this habit so dangerous is that I made it a priority before doing anything else.

Through experience and life lessons I have learned that God is going to make himself first in my life one way or another. Somehow, some way he is going to remind me that He should be the most important thing in my life and when I lower him to any other status I am only hurting me. I realized this past weekend how true that is.

On Friday my laptop crashed. Saturday was non eventful but Sunday gave me a run for my money. I got up and checked email like I’ve been doing. Then I got in a spat with my husband and we both went to church angry. I stayed that way throughout the day. Little annoyances that normally would not be a big deal sent me through the roof with my fists balled, duking it out with Donald duck. By the time I got home I was angry, cranky, and exhausted. It was a day I was more than thankful to put behind me. I promised God that from now on, He was going to be first.

Yesterday I woke up early and the first thing I did was read my Bible. Not surprisingly, God noticed. My laptop got fixed and a huge prayer request turned into a bigger praise report. It’s amazing how little He asks of me and what happens when I finally surrender and make him the Lord of my life. Prayers get answered and peace returns to my soul. As long as I keep my priorities in order and make God first, Anger Management should be a breeze. That t-shirt looked a bit big on me anyway.