The sun is just starting to crest over the hills in the east, painting the sky with pinks and reds and blues. It’s quiet, peaceful even. The wind is still and it seems as if the only other living things awake are the squirrels outside as they scamper across the grass and collect acorns fallen from the oak tree in our backyard. My picture window is littered with fingerprints as I peer out into the new morning, finishing up a prayer. I feel the weightiness and lightness of the day all at the same time. A new day brings responsibilities, obstacles, and for me, teaching and caring for my three little ones. A new day brings possibilities, joy, and thankfulness for another day to do life with the people I adore. I feel all these things in the same moment and as I close my eyes to picture the day ahead, I feel calm and ready.
Morning routines or morning rituals are synonymous. CEOs, entrepreneurs, writers, researchers, and moms are writing, researching, and discussing these concepts. A morning routine is a list of tasks completed before the work day begins. Sometimes it’s things needing to be done and sometimes it’s things wanting to be done.
Many morning routines include showers, exercise, and drinking coffee. Some include prayer, journaling, or work related tasks. What is important? Where should a person begin?
When I first started a morning routine, I did the things needing to be done: showering, exercise, email, my devotion, getting things ready for the day. All of these things are important and necessary. However, I didn’t take into account things wanting to be done. By me. I didn’t think about what my heart needed before I began my day. Today, I know I need to do something wanting done. I need to do one simple thing in the morning for me.
Before my babes come to me with their sleepy eyes and requests for yogurt and Cheerios, I need to do something wanting done.
The change of just doing the required tasks to doing both the necessary and the unnecessary in the morning has changed my perspective on the day. It has given me a sense of excitement in the morning as well as a feeling of fulfillment and peace when the time comes to wake my kids.
The thing I want to do changes from time to time. For awhile reading was all I wanted to do in the morning, then it was writing, then it was catching up on blogs, then it was watering the garden, then it was extra time in prayer. Now, it’s a mixture, but mostly writing and prayer. The quiet in the morning permits me time to be present with God as I pray and even gives me a window of silence to listen and just be. And my deep yearning to write is growing. With less time to do it, the morning gives me fresh space to get my thoughts down. My one simple thing in the morning ebbs and flows with the seasons and my preferences.
What is it you wish you could find time for? I have found the morning to be the time for those things. Yes, waking up is hard. And if you still have little ones waking in the middle of the night, your one simple thing in the morning may need to wait for another season. But, getting up to do the thing wanting done is worth it. Worth the five, ten, thirty minutes less sleep. It has brought me more joy than hitting snooze ever could. And if you need help beginning, check out a few ways to ease into it.
What is your one simple thing wanting done in the morning?