One of my favorite parts of the day are the hours from 4:30 AM to 6 AM.
Why?
Because that’s my quiet time.
What’s my quiet time look like? It means I get to have some time by myself to enjoy a cup of coffee, journal, read my bible, pray, and do any important tasks I “must do” for the day. Those two hours are the best part of my day because they are time for myself and time for God.
If I am not able to have that quiet time, then my day naturally is a little tougher. I don’t feel as strong, I am not as centered, and I don’t feel as purposeful in my work. That daily quiet time helps me to get myself right for the day and prepare for any work that might come my way.
Here’s a few reasons why my quiet time is so important to me:
My quiet time allows me to focus on what is most important.
Life is too short to dedicate it to trivial things. And our world has a tendency to always pull us to focus on the “little” things of life. Such as what type of car we drive, how new our iPhone is, or how cool we look in our clothers. These are all things that have little to do with the positive difference that we should be making in the world. My quiet time helps me to refocus on what the purpose of my life is: to be a leading servant who spreads God’s love around the world.
My quiet time helps to remind me that God is in control.
One element of my life that I’m learning to deal with is that I can’t control everything. There are certain things where I can do everything I can to be successful, but there is a limit to what I can do. I can write a great book, but it is on God to take that book and make it a best-seller. I can write a blog post, but it’s on God to have it be delivered to the right people who need to read it. I can only do so much, then the rest of it depends on God. My quiet time is a place that helps to remind me that I can only do so much, then from that point on I need to turn it over to God and allow him to take over from there.
My quiet time gives me a place to share my feelings and fears.
There is a tremendous amount of peace that I have knowing that I have a place where I can be myself. In my quiet time, I don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations. I can with open hearted, showing everything that I feel and fear. And that’s the safe place that I can connect with those feelings and fears within myself, and share them with God. Because when I do share my feelings and fears with him, he helps to comfort me. My quiet time allows me to share those feelings and fears I might not share with others, in the process he helps me to deal with them.
My quiet time produces reflective thinking and writing.
My quiet time helps me to think through and reflect on what I have learned. Leadership expert and best-selling author John C. Maxwell describes the importance of reflection as “We don’t learn from experiences, we learn from reflective experience.” Meaning, we only learn and grow when we take time to think back through what we have experience and we consciously draw out the learned lessons from it. When I journal in my quiet time, I am taking time to learn and grow because I am thinking through my experiences and trying to learn from it. I am writing out my thoughts and feelings and pulling them out of me, even though they might not feel good. My quiet time allows time for me to think and reflect, which is something I always need to make time for.
My quiet time slowly gets my mind and body ready for the day.
My quiet time helps me start my day of work at United Way at 8 AM fully charged and ready to rock-n-roll! By the time I arrive to work at United Way at 8 AM, I have already been up for four hours, have had a couple of cups of coffee, ate breakfast, and had lots of time by myself to deal with my own issues, before facing the day. My quiet time allows me to perform better at my job; getting more work done at a high quality level.
If you don’t take a regular quiet time, I suggest you do. When, where, or how long you take your quiet time is not what is important. What is important is that you find a time of the day and special place you can have your quiet time daily. Because if you do, I promise you will feel better, perform better at work, and be happier. Because I know I am.
Question: What does your daily quiet time look like?
