On Morning Routines
The start of a new year provides a good opportunity to reflect on habits and routines, especially morning routines. I’ve always liked the idea of being more intentional with what I do before the kids are up and the day begin, but it’s always been one false start after another.
Helped by an article by Ian Harber and the POWER Mornings course put together by Reagan Rose, I’ve come up with a morning routine that will hopefully be one that I stick to and will be a beneficial start to the day.
Having a special needs kid who needs his medication and breakfast at the same time means I begin every day at 7am, so my morning routine means I need to wake up at 6am if I want to have a good uninterrupted and distraction free hour. Then what do I do?
Pray
A few years ago I put together a four week Daily Prayer email which I have scheduled to send to myself at 6am (Monday-Friday). This contains a mix of prayers I’ve written myself and “prayers written by the church for the church.” Taking inspiration from the Book of Common Prayer’s Morning Prayer, Jonathan Gibson’s Be Thou My Vision, and Trevin Wax’s 30 Days series, Daily Prayer follows the structure of our service at Banstead Community Church with a few addition elements.
I’ve found using this Daily Prayer structure has helped to me to focus as I seek to orient my heart towards God.
Coffee
After praying I get a coffee. While I make it I use the Liturgy for the Ritual of Morning Coffee from Every Moment Holy by Doug Mckelvey.
Read
Banstead Community Church follows a church-wide Bible reading programme called The Big Read which covers the whole Bible in 4 years (2 years in the Old Testament; 2 years in the New Testament). I read the daily read in a physical Bible (Anglicised CSB) and then use a commentary as a conversation partner, noting down thoughts and things to pray about in a notebook.
Learn
If there’s time I’ll read or watch or listen to something, which I’ve planned in advance to do. If I don’t have the opportunity in the morning, I’ll find some time later in the day to do this.
Exercise
At 6.55am I do 44 push ups (I’ll leave you to guess why 44), and then make myself a strawberry and banana smoothie, before getting my boys breakfast.
Check In
Once the boys are sorted I send two WhatsApp messages.
One to the members of the church, which is a quote to encourage them by reminding them of truths about God, the gospel, and the Christian life.
The other to the ‘company of pastors’ that I’m part. Each of us sends a short message telling one another what we’ve got on that day so we can pray for one another. Doing this has the additional benefit of providing an opportunity to scan my calendar and to-do list before I begin work.
Whilst much of the routine I’ve already been doing, it hasn’t had the intentionality following this morning routine will give me.
One other component of the routine is putting in my AirPods and listening to this Spotify playlist quietly in the background.