What God Taught Me Through Rise and Shine

6-47am

Now that I have been grappling to find a new morning routine, I’m learning more about what God taught me through doing Rise and Shine for 10 years.

1. I learned discipline. Years of getting up early ingrained in me a series of healthy routines. I became disciplined in going to bed early and getting up early to pray, read my Bible and write a bit about what I had read. I got to the studios early enough to listen to the programme content Wayne had prepared. Everything had a moment in time for me to do. It felt so secure, building these habits. My life went around in a whirlwind of Rising and Shining. It dominated my life, which was not always a good thing, but the discipline I learned while doing it was good. I’m trying to find new habits now. Last night I didn’t set my alarm, choosing to wake up to Mike’s alarm at 5-30am. This did not work!

2. I learned patience. There is a difference between being a bit slack and being patient. It is easy to be lazy and justify it by saying, “I’m being patient with myself!” During Rise and shine the need for patience came to the fore when things went wrong. I learned not to panic. I learned that although things were falling apart, panicking was not going to work. When technical failures happened, they happened. There was nothing I could do but try keep on going. This was where a good nursing background helped. Whenever something went wrong in the studio, I reminded myself ‘no one has died’ – it’s not that bad!  Now that I am home, I am far more patient with myself in this adjustment phase. We need to take the time to find a routine that works. Maybe 5-30am is too late for me to get up. But maybe 4-45am is too early. I may find myself settling happily inbetween.

3. I learned to be happy every day. There are a couple of ways of saying this. Some say, ‘fake it til you make it.’ Others say ‘behave your way to success.’ Whatever way it is said, it works to push yourself to be happy every day. Of course, I wasn’t happy every day when I walked into the studio. But being happy in front of the listening audience, pretty much ensured that I would leave the studio happy. I learned to leave all my issues, irritations, snotty nose & sore throat outside the studio and hit the airwaves as ‘happy Helga.’ It worked! And so it has come to pass that this ingrained habit has overflowed into my daily life. Even at home alone, I behave happy.  I do little jigs and twirls in the kitchen. I jump up and down for joy in the bathroom! It’s a behaviour change that has amazing benefits! I learned that smiling makes me feel better, instantly! Amazing! You can be happy alone!

4. I learned how to make every day different. When you are producing a lot of the content for 5 shows a week, you have to find variety. The only way I could do this is to have something different every day. Marvellous Monday, Terrific Tuesday, Worship Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, Fabulous Friday. Everyday had same format, slightly different content. Life can be the same. For variety do something different each day to add flavour to the day. Try and do something nice for yourself every day.

5. I learned to trust God more. When you are in the public ear, criticism is part of the job. People complain about the most amazingly small things. I once pronounced someones name incorrectly (they had just died) and I got a phone call from a lady who absolutely blasted me from a dizzy height for so badly disrespecting this person. I had pronounced their name more English than Afrikaans and this woman let me know! People would criticize the music. Sometimes, I would get smsses saying, “stop talking and play some music!” That’s the nature of the game.  The criticism really lost its impact when I started to pray. I prayed to the Lord and I committed each listener to Him. I asked Him to bless them. I can’t meet all their needs but He can, so I asked Him to use whatever content was on that day and meet the listener needs. When I did get a criticism, I knew I had prayed that day and committed it all to God. I learned to trust Him more.

6. I learned humility. In radio, the size of your audience is a dominating factor. Numbers count. I remember in the early days, getting just a few smsses each day. Response was so so low. After a month or two of being on air, the listenership statistics came out and we had lost a whole bunch of listeners. I remember sitting on the floor on the CCFm balcony, crying and saying to the Lord, “Lord! You could press a button and have all of Cape Town listening. Why won’t you?” Oh how the Lord must have smiled and thought how bad that would have been for me. Instead, I learned that this show was not my own. Throughout the 10 years, I made a point of not calling it ‘my show.’  When I referred to it, I wouldn’t say, “I’m going to have such and such on ‘my show'” I’d say, “I’m going to have such and such on Rise and Shine.” I may have taking ownership of the content and driven the show, but it was never mine to own.

What a blessing it was. A wonderful season has closed and I am revelling in all I have learned. I don’t regret my decision. I’m so grateful to God for teaching me these life lessons.  I wait His instructions in continuing to make my way perfect. That’s the verse I wrote about on the Helga’s Daily Blog Facebook page:

2 Samuel 22:33

It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.

Amen!

God bless you!

In His Grip,

Helga xx 🙂

Gratitude Pic…trying to write the blog with Truffles in the way…