There isn't much I can do when the rest of the country is keeping time an hour later than I'd like. I either have to embrace it, or decide to go to bed when our 12 year old daughters do. The world is the way it is, it isn't going to bend to me. I have to somehow bend to, or make peace with, it.

We all know, of course, that moving the hands on a clock doesn't actually save daylight. The length of the day is controlled by the workings of the solar system, not the conventions governments can impose. But turning toward God, toward grace, toward love, is a free and daily choice made by each human soul. It is one that God omnipotent has placed in our hands.

Whether you "spring ahead" or "fall back," small things can have a disproportionately large effect. The same can be said for the spiritual life. An objectively insignificant shift either toward God or away from him, creates an ever expanding -- or ever-shrinking -- gap over time. When we fall to one temptation, we are more likely to keep falling. When we are able to resist temptation by grace, we grow in grace and in the strength to stand against evil.

As much as I dislike changing the clocks, doing so reminds me that my own internal gears need periodic adjustment as well. Left to my own devices, I'm sure to end up running too slow, or too fast. The truth is I can't keep time alone, no one can. In order for my life to run smoothly, I need to be taken apart now and then, cleaned up, and put back together.

In a few weeks, the sun will rise earlier again and it'll be easier to get up in the morning. Spring will have come in fullness. For now, the promise of spring is one we trust because we have seen it kept before. Likewise, we can trust in the promise of eternal life, of an everlasting day that never ends, because we have seen Christ rising from the dead.

Jaymie Stuart Wolfe is a wife and mother of eight children, and a disciple of the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales. She is an inspirational author, speaker, musician and serves as an Associate Children's Editor at Pauline Books and Media.