Whatever you want to call it, I am a person that constantly has to be doing something. I used to always just wake up at the last second, get ready, and fly out the door. I would go go go alllll day, to come home, go to bed, and do it all over again the next day.

I have never been much of reader; in fact, I really don't like reading books at all. For Christmas, however, I'm not sure if my parents were trying to tell me something, but they got me three books. THREE. They both know very well that reading is not my thing, BUT what I DIDN'T know, is how much I actually needed these in my life. It wasn't necessarily about the books, though. It was about the time. I don't really like reading that much because I feel like it just takes too much time. Time that I struggle to find.

This is when I realized that I was going to have to wake up just a little bit earlier to read these books. This sounds so cheesy typing this, because it makes it sound like I made a chore out of these books, but it really helped me in the long run.

I made a deal to myself that I would wake up 45 minutes earlier every morning so I could read a chapter out of my book a day. Little did I know what these 45 minutes would do.

I woke up the first morning, read, and found that I had all this extra time. Remember before when I said I constantly have to be doing something? Yea, well, this newfound extra time drove me nuts. I would read and then sit there. But that was the beauty of it all. Realizing that sitting there, watching it get lighter and lighter outside, having time to actually drink my morning tea out of a cute glass mug instead of my tin to go, was so relaxing. I then started to take this extra time to journal and write down all of my extra morning thoughts. I then started to take this time to make yummy breakfasts. I then started to take this time to actually get ready for the day and wear real clothes to class. And this was when I realized that this extra time I had in the morning was so beautiful.

By losing myself and sense of time in actions like these are so much for meaningful to me, versus losing myself and sense of time in the sleeping ins and rushing arounds. The morning has easily turned into one of my favorite times of day. I have always been a morning person, but I had to be getting up to go do something, not just wake up to start off my day with a little more purpose.

That's essentially what it all boils down to in the end; what am I doing with my extra time to set up a more intentional and purposeful day for myself ahead? It says in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God." God wants us to all be different and to take that time to renew ourselves for the day ahead. In doing so we will really be able to know what God's intentions are for us.

I invite you to start your days a little earlier, brighter, and more purposeful – because that is what God wants from all of us – not being afraid to take that extra step in finding ourselves and the intentions he has for us. (Even if it takes an extra cup of coffee to wake you up in the morning.)