Matt Chandler on his "personal walk"

I'm a night person

same here.

I have never understood this. Doing Bible study early in the morning never did anything more for me than doing it at other times of the day. I have discovered, in fact, that I am less focused early in the morning. I think it's fine to try it, but I see no distinct advantage to a 6 am study time vs. an 11 pm study time.

When I was in high school--and now that I am a youth minister--I heard/continue to hear speakers tell youth to get up at 5:30 am and do their quiet time because that's the ONLY way to do it. The implication is that you should somehow feel guilty if you don't get up at the crack of dawn for your Bible study.

We now know that teens do better when they get more sleep in the morning: http://sleepdisorders.about.com/b/2009/03/30/when-school-starts-late-teens-sleep-great.htm. Schools are in fact looking at later start times in order to accommodate this.

So why are youth leaders still pushing them to get up at 5:30 am???

Michelle, I hope your early morning venture works for you. Do what you feel that you need to do. But I won't be getting up with you!

The implication is that you should somehow feel guilty if you don't get up at the crack of dawn for your Bible study.

Well, I sure hope not, because that's ridiculous. I wouldn't spend two minutes with a group that insinuated such nonsense.

But another thing I've found about a morning quiet time: it's insatiable. If I give it its head, I'd be there at least 'til after lunch. And, as much as I'd like to, I can't, cuz it's self-indulgent.

Would that be like a "first fruits" thing, Tom? That's the only possible justification for it that I can come up with.