Get Your Day Off on the Right Foot

One of my college roommates designed her whole life around avoiding mornings. She scheduled no classes before 10 a.m., and her skilled sleeping techniques allowed her to sleep through the chaos of two roommates dressing, alking in normal tone and volume, and blow drying our hair (Hey, it was the 80’s!).

I’ve lost track of her since college days, so I don’t know whether she has managed to curate a morning-averse adult life—but I doubt it. The demands of work, parenting, and common courtesy usually require that we function outside our preferred parameters at least some of the time. Life begins at 5:00 a.m. here on the hill, and that made for some short nights during the years when we had teen drivers pushing the limits on an 11:00 curfew.

Whether you’re a bright-eyed breakfast eater who can carry on a conversation within seconds of opening your eyes or a soul who spends the first hours of her day groping toward consciousness, morning shows up in your life. The two hundred-plus mentions of mornings in the biblical record show that God did some of his best work in the morning, and when I manage to go for a walk early in the day, I’m convinced that he is still at work in a special way then.

Each new day is filled with God’s promise of renewal and hope. What if you started your mornings with purpose?

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That’s why I was pleased to review Jennifer Dukes Lee’s How to Love Your Morning. The subtitle promises “faith-filled habits to build a life of joy and purpose one day at a time,” and the book makes good on the promise. Most important is Lee’s refusal to take a judgmental stance on anyone’s approach to morning. My long-ago roommate would rejoice to hear, “When you think of meeting God ‘early in the morning,’ think of it as meeting him early in your morning.”

With her well-loved humor and gifted storytelling, Jennifer Dukes Lee has crafted liturgies that will set her readers’ minds on things above and rituals that give weight and purpose to our routine habits of holiness. She builds on the foundation Jesus laid in Mark 12:30, calling for a full expression of our love for God using our “heart, soul, mind, and strength” in a holistic embrace of our mornings with God.

Regular Living Our Days readers will recognize Lee’s spin on my favorite Annie Dillard quote: “How we live our days is how we spend our lives.” And it’s true: “How we start our mornings is how we spend our days.”

Holding You in the Light,

Start your day grounded in truth and watch how it changes everything.

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Grief comes to everyone sooner or later, and whether it’s the death of a loved one or the loss of some cherished aspect of our life or identity, God’s Word is crucial for grieving well. Past hurts have a habit of snagging our hearts in unexpected moments, but God provides abundant grace to help the believer move through grief without getting stuck and without wasting the opportunity to walk more closely with the Lord who lightens our darkness.

As you know, I’m committed to the truth that women can become confident followers of God and students of his Word, and it’s my goal to help you along that path. At Living Our Days, I provide biblical content and resources to encourage biblical literacy and faithful living, and now I’m sharing devotional content on the YouVersion app. Visit my profile page to get free access to all the reading plans!

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Associate, which means that whenever you purchase a book I’ve shared here through the link I provide, I’ll receive a very small commission. It doesn’t cost you more, and I only share books here that I can wholeheartedly recommend.

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Many thanks to Bethany House Publishers and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.