Why should I get up EARLY in the morning?

Just so you all know, this post is an answer to a question posed by Dave in the comments to my Yawnnnnnn! post about why I made it a goal to get up at 5:00 a.m. He asked what value I got out of getting up so early that could not be gotten by staying up equally late (that's basically the idea, I think)

I know this is a LONG post but you all might get something out of it (not just Dave) if you take the trouble to read it. By the way, I am using this blog as a journal, now, so some of the posts might seem weird, too spiritual or too personal. All I can say is "sorry, that's just me coming out on paper" (or should I say, on computer :)

There's a whole chapter on the subject of getting up early in Randal A Wright's book "Achieving Your Life Mission." His class at Education Week was so good I went to three sessions of it for the last three days. It was his class that inspired me to get up early and to write my "100 goals list." (goals I would like to accomplish in the next ten years of my life. That's a whole other post.)

He quotes several of the General Authority's writings that I think are especially good. I'll let them speak for themselves:

Elder Marion G. Romney asked Elder Harold B. Lee what he needed to do to be a successful General Authority. Elder Lee spoke about the necessity of receiving personal revelation in order to be effective and said: "If you are to be successful... you will need to be inspired. You will need to receive revelation. I will give you one piece of advice: Go to bed early and get up early. If you do, your body and mind will become rested and then in the quiet of those early morning hours, you will receive more flashes of inspiration and insight than at any other time of the day."

President Romney said: "From that day on, I put that counsel into practice, and I know it works."

President Boyd K Packer said, "When I'm under pressure, you won't find me burning the midnight oil. I'd much rather be in bed early and getting up in the wee hours of the morning, when I can be close to Him who guides this work." Elder Christensen added his testimony by saying, "Some are habituated to going to bed late and sleeping much longer than your system really needs and thus missing out on some of the personal inspiration you could be receiving."

In our fast-paced world filled with so many activities, going to bed early takes every bit as much willpower as getting up early. Perhaps that is why so few people actually do it. President Joseph F. Smith, writing to one of his missionary sons said, "The Lord said, 'Retire to bed early,' and this is wise advice, but we do not heed it. Now let me say, Let us go to bed early, that we may rise early and be refreshed. So far as we can. It is God's plan. He tells us to do it and we should obey."

Some may think that they are biologically programmed to be a morning person or a night person. But Elder Christensen addressed this when he said, "Nowhere do the scriptures say, 'Thou shalt sleep eight hours.' Nor do the say, 'Retire early unless you happen to be a night person."

Brother Wright writes: After hearing a General Authority mention during a stake conference that he got up very early every morning, I asked how many of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve did the same. His eyes locked on mine and he exclaimed, "They all do!"

Also D&C 88:124 says, "... cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated."

Elder Russell M. Nelson also tied [getting up early] to our mental well being when he said, "Those who feel defeated and downtrodden, look to the early hours of the day for your rescue."

To all that, let me share my personal experience. When I was 27 years old I had six children and no time when I could do a serious study of the scriptures without interruption. So I decided to get up at 5:00 a.m. when I could be alone and uninterrupted. I did this for about nine months. I chose to study the Book of Mormon so I got a study guide from BYU's Book of Mormon course. I found, to my absolute delight, that I was more spiritually, mentally and emotionally uplifted than at any other time in my life. And I'm 61 years old so that's saying a lot. I am convinced that getting up early is really important. I don't know why I stopped getting up early except that I finished the Book of Mormon and didn't continue to study any of the other standard works.

(Oh Oh, here I go off on a tangent about scriptures, sorry folks, that's what I said before about getting the real me.)

As I studied, I found that I came to LOVE the Book of Mormon. I didn't want to be without my scriptures. I loved highlighting the scriptures that were impressive to me, marking them up, writing in the margins and cross referencing them. Those scriptures wore out, so I bought a new set and did the same marking, etc. This time I even got a copy of the paperback B of M and cut the pictures out and pasted them in the appropriate places of my scriptures. I bought a packet of B of M comments by the Brethren which were like sticky note pads only a little smaller and put them in the appropriate pages as well. Then I bought a set of study guides that could be pasted in at certain places where they commented on what was said in the text. I still have those scriptures but they are getting so fragile that I don't dare use them for studying any more.

I now have a large set of scriptures that I am marking all over again, but not referring to my old scriptures this time. It's refreshing to start over again. I have a whole different outlook on life, now, and I am impressed by different things in the scriptures than I was with my old set. It's like seeing with new eyes. I would suggest that you buy a new set of scriptures every 10 years and start marking them again. It would be like a new volume for each decade of your life. I guarantee that you'll mark them differently each decade according to your life experiences.

Well, that's it. Hope it was worth reading, Dave, because it's taken me four hours to compose this post. It's also 9:03 p.m. and Joe and I still have to have our scripture study together.

BTW the Dave that I'm writing to in this post is not my son David, he is just someone who started commenting on my post one day. All I know about him is that he is the loving father of three adorable sons (one of them only about 2 weeks old), he has a funny sense of humour and he likes classical music as well as country.

Cheers, everyone!