The alarm clock buzzes with such arrogance, Beth is tempted to pick it up and throw it across the room.. Grunting, she slams on the “off” button. It is 5:30 in the morning. “What a cruel world.” She said to herself. “Arggh!” She pulls the tangled sheets away and sits for a while.
“Five more minutes.” She says.
Pulling herself together Beth forces herself to spring up and quickly go to the bathroom to wash up. She brushes her teeth and looks forward to her morning cup of coffee. As the coffee brews she walks to the front door to retrieve the newspaper that awaits her obediently on her doormat. Beth slams the paper on the dining room table and pours herself a cup of coffee. The front headlines are as depressing as usual and she sighs. She looks out of her bay window to a beautiful and undisturbed world. The table needs to be cleared of breakfast dishes before she gets dressed and ready to go to work.
Beth has an immaculate home. Her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder did not allow for any untidiness. She would not tolerate dishes leftover from a meal to lie around or have beds that weren’t made. She changed her shower curtain lining once a week and scrubbed her floors on her hands and knees until she could see her own reflection staring back at her.
She grabs her coffee cup and paper but the Bible on the corner of the table catches her eye, at first because it was out of place and should be on her bookshelf. Then she thinks in her wild rush to start her day she should pause to read God’s word.
“How did this get here?” She wondered as she replaced the paper and the coffee cup back onto the table.She took it in her hands and slid her palm across the familiar leather cover, a bit worn on the binding from when she wore it out in her teen years. She read the Word religiously. That was so long ago.
The phone rings, a rude awakening from Beth’s daydream. She jumps startled.
“Hello!” she frantically yells into the phone. Her heart is beating so quickly. It always did when the phone rang so early in the morning. She always expected to hear some bad news. But it was not bad news. It was her carpool buddies.
“Beth, it’s seven, we’ve been waiting here for a while, you ready?”
“Seven!?” It couldn’t be she just woke up.
Frustrated she informs her carpool buddies that she will be out in five minutes.
She slams the phone onto the cradle. She slams the worn Bible onto its place on the bookshelf. She slams the newspaper into the recycling can. She slams the door of her room to get dressed for work. This is going to be another one of those days when she is running behind and seems to be going warp speed all day and yet she won’t seem to be making any progress. But this was Beth’s life. As she runs out the front door to join her carpool friends she says a quick prayer in her head. “Thank you God for all you do. Protect me and keep me. Amen” She doesn’t pray aloud because her friends aren’t Christian and wouldn’t understand. She jumps inside the four door and squeezes between her two co workers. After some small chit-chat she looks out her windows and sadly remembers her teen Bible. “I wish I had more time for You, God.” She says barely above a whisper.
“Huh? ” Says the fellow passenger. Beth doesn’t tell her friend that she is talking to God. “I was talking to myself, you know, thinking aloud.”
“Girl, don’t go crazy on me now, we have a presentation this afternoon.”
The presentation, How could she forget she was up half the night working on it. It’s only 7:15 and Beth was longing for the day to end. “I should pray more often.” She thought.
Later on this day Beth would realize the importance of taking time out to pray.
To be continued…..