Freeing.

I'm a nighttime girl. My mind wakes up around 8:30, and I can get the most done as the hours are winding down. (This was far greater true when I didn't have small children, but it is nonetheless how my mind is designed to work.)

Bring on the bedtime: I'm ready to think.

As a result, my time with God is most fruitful, profitable and predictable when it is the bow to tie up the end of my day. It works out well. I enter my office, turn down the lights, listen to music, write down lyrics, read my Bible, journal my heart out, and sort out corners of my mind. In the end, I am refreshed as I fall asleep, and I am renewed the next morning for a new day.

So, I have often resisted the recommended mindset that one's 'quiet time' should happen in the morning. Perhaps it's a life stage thing... but right now, I think a morning commitment would feel rushed as I sought to absorb (or release) as much as I could before the natives grew restless in their beds.

And, truth be told, I can't seem to get up before them. Or not much before them. (Perhaps this is the danger of being a night owl. Morning still comes.)

But just today, I found this quote, this collection of very freeing words.

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Some of us are more naturally night people or morning people. Our situations further influence what time is best to set aside. The advantage of the early morning is the way it sets our attentiveness for the day. The advantage of the evening is the way it re-integrates us and settles us down for the night. It is ideal to set aside ten minutes to an hour both morning and night, giving more or less time as our situation allows.

More important though is not the number of times or duration, but our deciding on some time and duration and sticking to it, at least for a trial period of a few weeks. This means that once we’ve decided to do it, we treat it like brushing our teeth; it is just something we do, without agonizing over it each time. Brushing our teeth, once it’s a habit, is very simple. So is prayer time. If we leave open a crack for re-deciding every day, then it becomes complicated. We’ve undercut the very simplicity that prayer time can reveal. When you feel resistance to prayer time, just lightly see the resistance, and get on with it.

Don’t judge your resistance. Don’t even judge yourself if your resistance is so great that you give up your discipline one day. Judgment complicates our resistance and turns what is simple into a heavy struggle. Just gently notice what has happened, smile, and go back to your discipline the next day."

~Living Simply Through The Day

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And so there it is. Freedom. Freedom from guilt, from stagnance, from a specific hour.

And I find myself wishing to call it a day.

(Is it bedtime yet?)