up with the dawn

The last few days I've been camping out on my parents couch...I'm not complaining - the new furniture is soft and made with that fuzzy material, so it's nice. They get up to head to work around 5ish and since my temporary bed is in the living room, I've been getting up around that time too. (Not good at sleeping when lights are on and people are moving around me) Usually I would just fall back to sleep after they walked out the door and the morning's calmness returned...but this morning I just woke up feeling motivated and couldn't fall back to sleep. I'm on "vacation" so I have no reason or task to feel motivated about, but, nonetheless couldn't get back to sleep. So, I poured a glass of heavy pulp OJ (personal fave) and enjoyed watching the sun make its slow climb to the skyline. The house is calm and quiet...baby still asleep, dog asleep... air conditioner taking a break from its humming. The stillness is wonderful.

Lastnight as I was falling asleep I kept thinking about my personal salvation testimony. Weird. I was thinking about the fact that we (I) seem to get so familiar and used to telling our testimony that we streamline it and probably leave out lots of the "little parts", parts that happened because they need telling about. The last few months I think I've shared my experience 15 times as we went through different experiences, job interviews, etc. And each time I shared I noticed that I was trimming and skimming details to make it quicker for the hearer... hmmm...not intentionally "Dissing" my story - but, making it listener friendly, cutting out the details that I thought maybe weren't important enough?! IMPORTANT ENOUGH? So yes, as I was drifting asleep I kind of challenged myself to maybe write out my salvation experience once and for all - every detail I can remember. It is that important. With those thoughts... I realized that, yes, though I was only 5 when my "transformation" started... (wasn't saved at that point) it was the beginning of my journey to faith. Lately I just quickly state, "I thought I was saved when I was 5 years old..." and then get on to the "good stuff". However, this morning it seems to me in my state of mind that those 5 year old memories are good and fresh and maybe just the most important memories as they sent me on my way to getting to know God. Though it took an additional 8 years for me to actually SEE and UNDERSTAND my need, wow, what an age of understanding. So, I'm hoping for some down time today where I can sit before this keyboard and just type out every memory I have about my experience with meeting with my God from the first time up to this morning.

My daughter just made her first morning babbles through the baby monitor. She is my reminder of God's goodness in my life... Lord, thank you for her! Thank you for her life!