How Snooze-Fast Began...

I am a member of the leadership team of a group I attend.  The challenge was shared with us last week to choose something to fast from for 21 days.  "This should be easy" I thought.  Then God revealed what He wanted me to give up... something I have been struggling with for as long as I can remember... the snooze button!

I have a love/hate relationship with the snooze button.  I love pushing the button and rolling over for a few more minutes of sleep.  I had 3 alarms set on my phone to make sure I wouldn't just turn it off and go back to sleep, and then over sleep.  I could fall into a deep sleep in the matter of seconds. And, I could push snooze for two hours if time allowed. I absolutely love snoozing. 

I could see several problems with my snoozing.  It would make me get up late because I always thought, "Just one more snooze".  That would make mornings rushed - every morning.  I had little time for devotions, which, when I did do them, were a devotional on my phone.  (I really enjoyed those, but I knew I was at the place where I needed something more).  I had zero spare minutes - because I snoozed them all away.  If anything went off track, I was late to wherever I was supposed to be that morning.  I had no flex time.  Snoozing was my addiction. 

I had been thinking about my morning issues for some time now, but I had no incentive or desire to change my behaviour.  I wanted to spend more time with God in the morning, but that wasn't even enough to make me want to stop the addition and change my ways.

When the challenge was given last week, it only took a few minutes of thinking to know what I needed to do. I was so excited about finally having a purpose, reason, incentive, and kick in the pants to make a morning change, I got right to it.  I put my cell phone across the room beside my prayer mat so I would have to get out of bed in the morning to turn it off.  

On Thursday, March 15, 2018, when my alarm went off across the room, I got out of bed, knelt on the prayer mat, and turned off the alarm.  I thanked God for the new day and asked Him to help me stay awake.  I got up, left the room, put the coffee on, and sat down to embark on the "replacement" part of my fast - Bible Study.