In The Morning When I Rise

There is a song we sing in my women's Bible study called Give Me Jesus. It chokes me up every time I hear it. This week we learned that a woman in our study had passed away and even though I did not know her, I still could not bring myself to sing this song because of my own personal convictions connected to the lyrics. Here they are...

In the morning when I rise, in the morning when I rise
in the morning when I rise, give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus.
You can have all this world,
but give me Jesus.

And when I am alone, oh and when I am alone,
when I am alone, give me Jesus.

And when I come to die, oh and when I come to die,
when I come to die, give me Jesus.

Nearly every morning when I wake-up and stumble out of bed I have a pout on my face, a to-do list in my head, and crying toddlers asking where daddy is. So in the morning when I rise, I am ashamed to say that my first thought is not to ask for Jesus to steer the day. In writing this, however, I hope to keep myself accountable in doing so. I hope to start each day with a smile on my face, a calmness in my heart to face each task with joy, and a love that can equal the love of my children's father.

Lately, Jeremy and I have been struggling with balancing the parental discipline of our children. After hearing Maya say "I like Daddy better," and hearing her cry for her Daddy to put her to bed I have decided to ask Jeremy to help me co-discipline the children in hopes that they do not see me as the mean one. I recognise that it is probably much harder for him to discipline because he gets very little time with them during the day and does not want to spend a second of it in a fierce battle over right from wrong. Love and discipline is a tricky thing, but we now understand that it is something that needs to be tackled together. Our new plan has already begun to make a difference in our family life. We seem much happier. We laugh more and we play more. I stress less and hope for the best instead of expecting the worst. And I owe a lot of it to the most amazing daddy and husband I know.

As a couple, this is our 5th Christmas together. Our first was only 2 months after we got married. By our 2nd Christmas, we had a 2 month old daughter, and by our 3rd Christmas we had a 1 month old son. Last year the kids were still young and it seemed overly stressful with two sugar-filled babies. So it is nice to welcome in a new Christmas where we can change the course of events, eat less, and just enjoy playing together as a family.

I do not make New Years resolutions because they normally never work out for me, so instead I wish to make promises to my family for 2010. I promise to be more loving and less nit-picky. I promise to play more and do less list-making. I promise to make our marriage a priority and not just our kids. I promise to breathe more and tense less. And if I begin to fail, I give Jeremy the right to remind me of these promises because Satan can have all of this world, but as long as I have the love of my family then I have been given the gift of Jesus.

Our First Christmas together (2005)


Our 2nd Christmas together (2006)


Our 3rd Christmas together (2007)


Our 4th Christmas together (2008)


Our 5th Christmas together (2009)