Rhythm of Rest: Morning Routine

So, would you agree with me that there are morning people and that there are NOT morning people?  Is it possible for someone to change from a NOT morning person into one?  (What do you call them anyway - a morning dove instead of a mourning dove or instead of its opposite: a night owl?)   I love and appreciate the wisdom that Rebekah Lyons expounds upon in this chapter, but although a part of me deeply admires and a tiny part of me perhaps envies her routine that includes prayer, journaling, Scripture, and gratitude, the part of me that thinks about how to put something into practice and make it a reality in my life cowers away from the tough-to-imagine idea of finding joy in the first part of the day.

I read the liturgy she shared from Douglas McKelvey’s Every Moment Holy book:

Excerpt from McKelvey’s Every Moment Holy Book.

My soul leaped at the idea of grasping onto and focusing on the positive words ending the six middle stanzas: peace, hope, strength, faith, and love - what powerful and strong words to begin my day!

But knowing myself, I was honest that somehow my distractible mind might be tempted to focus on the beginnings of those lines instead: discords, discouragements, weariness, doubts, and wounds… would those memories of yesterday threaten to dominate my morning routine?  Did I really want to start out my day rehashing yesterday - the things I’d said to one of my children in frustration or the sad news that my friend had shared with me?  Could I just skip over the harms inflicted on my personality yesterday and just jump immediately into the grace?

When I was in high school, a classmate accused me once of being a pessimist.  Or maybe the word was “cynical”.   These came as surprising adjectives to me as I would’ve chosen “realist” instead.  Sometimes I look at cheery little quotes or inspiring suggestions or read books full of idealistic points of view, and I can only see the fluff and hollowness of them.  I’m not the perky type who manages to float through life above all the mucky stuff in the world somehow, always finding silver linings and positive takeaways.  In fact, sometimes I may even give those people a suspicious (but subtle or perhaps more often mental) side-eye as I have my doubts that anyone could possibly find their existence so idyllic and awe-inspiring.

My dual reaction to wanting to embrace this beautiful prayer and the urge to post it on a wall in my prayer closet (I don’t really have one of those, just to let you know) argues with that stubborn side of me that shoves away the “spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down”.  Perhaps I really am a “rain on your party” kind of personality - an Eeoyre type of person who trudges more than skips.  Maybe some of my coffee-addicted friends would keep pestering me to take up the habit of drinking a latte or an espresso; surely caffeine makes everything a little brighter, 

Before I lapse too thoroughly into sarcasm - a place where I sometimes find myself - maybe what I need to do is to just push past her expectations of an ideal morning and way to begin the day and to first of all take ownership over the fact that I am who God created me to be.  And so are you!  As much as I try to stretch my imagination into trying to visualize myself as a cheerful morning person or a sunny personality or a person who actually looks forward to the greeting time at church, I find myself realistically acknowledging that perhaps those are not my roles in life.  To force ourselves into someone else’s ideal routine or beginning of a day is like trying to wear someone else’s running shoes.

A “morning routine” must be what works for me and that I will stick with because of how it works.  Trying to pretend I’m something I am not or that something feels good to me when it really does NOT, feels dishonest.  Baby steps may have to be the steps I take with this recommendation.  Will you join me in trying to incorporate time with Jesus into your routine in a way that works for you?  Maybe it won’t look exactly like Rebekah Lyons’ routine does, but see if you can find a space in every single one of your days gifted to you here on this planet where you can allow Jesus to mold your heart after His.