Let’s Start 2025 On A High Note
The way we start our day can potentially make a significant difference in how the rest of our day goes. However we manage one day can become a habit. This can then lead into many days, even months, and possibly even the entire year.
I learned long ago that my mornings are the most impactful part of my day, and wanted to make the most of this knowledge. As a result, I jotted down the things I noticed about my mornings as I lived day by day, especially those things that had a positive influence on my life. Today, I’m here to share them with you, in the hope you will find these things helpful to you!
Mornings That Start The Day Right
Connect With God
Connect with God by giving him thanks first think in the morning. I often do this while still on my bed, just waking up. I typically stretch and talk to God: “Thank you for the rest, Lord. I love you. I give you my day, committing my ways to you. Please help me to be sensitive and obedient to your will, and please use my life for your glory today.”
Some basic things you can do to help you connect with God:
- Thank him for daily blessings, like a good night’s rest, waking you up to a new day of opportunity, and for being your closest friend
- Thank him for specific answers to prayer
- Thank him for continually blessing you with motivation to keep doing, even in the face of things that want to “pull the plug” on your enthusiasm and energy
Read God’s Word
While reading the Holy Bible, God’s Word, first thing in the morning with a hot cup of coffee, I make sure I am not rushing through my reading. Although mornings are not the only time of day when I soak in God’s Word, this is the time of day when the world’s demands are the most silent. I want to take it slower, thinking about what I am reading and how it impacts my life.
I allow myself to become sidetracked by looking into the meaning of unfamiliar words in the Bible, and by comparing one scripture to another whenever there is a question. I sometimes write down the words I look up, what the definition is, where that definition is located, and the meaning I personally get out of it. I highly recommend doing this.
On a side note, when I first began reading God’s Word, not only did I not understand much of what I read, I found myself feeling sleepy every time I did! It was rather frustrating to me since I really did want to get to know and understand the Bible.
What did I do? I simply asked God to help me stop feeling so sleepy and to help me get out of his Word what he wanted me to. HE DID! And he continues to do so more than 40 years later.
Spend Time in Prayer
Pray, talking to the one who knows all and who loves you better than anyone else could possibly love you!
What to pray? These are things I do in my prayer time as well as throughout my day:
- Praise God for Truth, for giving me the gift of his Holy Spirit, and for leading me into a life with meaning as I represent him to my loved ones and the world around me
- Cast all my cares upon him, for he cares for me! He has a plan for my life and is unfolding it in his timing
- Intercede for souls in need, especially those who need salvation. It’s right to pray for someone when I notice they are not well or are struggling with something. Praying for others is an act of love and it helps keep me from becoming critical.
- Speak out loud those promises from God’s Word that remind me he is in control and that I am his child. This helps me remeber that he is the Vine, I am only a grafted-in branch. I cannot possibly bear fruit without being connected to him!
- Thank God for being Who He Is, for making me his own, and for his many blessings.
Set Short and Long Term Goals
If you don’t have written goals, now is the perfect time to start. There is something empowering in writing out the things you want to accomplish. Even better, it’s truly energizing when you mark them off from a list, noting that it’s done!
What kinds of goals would you want to include? That inherently depends on your personality, your family, your healthy, and your work situation. Below is a sample list of what mine looked like when I was a SAHM. They are not given in order of importance or anything like that. Some items listed are for each day; others occur within one week:
- Bible Reading
- Prayer
- Laundry
- Dishes
- Weekly Menu
- Shoppping List
- Piano lessons
- Dinner started
- Weeds pulled
- Car washed
- Mending
- Outreach and visit
- Thank You Cards ready
- DIY project worked on
- Banking, Budget, and Bills (the three ‘B’s.)
- Bible Study
- Ready for Church
Next Up: Review Your To-Do’s
Reveiw your Weekly To-Do List on a daily basis to help keep you on top of things going on later in the week. This can be done first thing each day or right before you retire for the night. Then, either throughout your day or during your review time:
- Check things off your list as you get them done. This builds a sense of accomplishment, which in turn is energizing!
- Move items off your list that seem to linger. If they linger, they are not likely important enough to warrant attention. Things that don’t get done can lead to feelings of failure, even when there are valid reasons. If you don’t feel ready to completely abandon an item that keeps hanging around on your To-Do list, move it to a new kind of list: Future Considerations. If you later decide that the idea really isn’t worth pursuing, the name of that list, Future Considerations, makes it okay to let it go.
Reading through your Long-Term Goals at least once per month, if not on a weekly basis, can help you keep a clear vision of where you want to go. Just knowing you have long-term goals can inspire you when dealing with the repetetive and mudane tasks of daily life.
For instance, say your long-term goal is a vacation. Ask God to help you save and plan for it. Follow this with being wise in the use of your time and finances, versus living frivolously. Remember, you are a child of God, the King of kings; this makes you royalty! As a daughter of the King, you are expected to represent his values to the world.
When it looks like reaching your goal is impossible, just keep praying all you know to pray about it. You might even ask God to help you know how to pray.
It can be fun to track progress, enabling you to see how close you are to your goal. If it’s not a surprise, you can do this with your family, teaching your children the power of delayed gratification for the sake of reaching more valuable goals.
Stay Active, Healthy, And Happy
In general, this involves being physically active, drinking water througout the day, eating sensibly, and getting outside.
How do I manage this?
- Get fresh air ASAP! Open windows to let in fresh air, putting on a sweater if I get cold. For the record, I learned that all it takes is doing a little housework to warm up: Vacuum, fold laundry, make beds, etc.
- Fill my water bottle and take drinks often. Say “No” to caffeine and sugar more often.
- Prepare healthy-snack containers to grab from when hungry. Fill with fresh fruits, veggies, and nuts or other sources of protien.
- Lift my weights. Stretch, Walk. Walk up and down my stairs several times if nothing else! Get my heart pumping.
- Breathe deeply, indoors and out. Sing loudly!
A Final Word
God’s Word has much to say on how we can live an abundant, happy, productive life. God’s will is that our lives are meaningful and that we are able to be a blessing to those around us, especially our family members. I hope this has been motivating for you as you contemplate the New Year ahead. It can be one filled with hope, purpose, and joy!
Here is the link to a free gift I want to share with you. This link is for a free PDF printable download to help you set your weekly goals. I created this years ago yet I have revised it multiple times as I learned what worked better for me. If you need to save color toner ink, I believe you can set your printe to black and white. If you want a version of this without the arrows and the list of habits to track, please reach out to me. I’ll see what I can do to accommodate.
LOL! If you only knew how much GOD gets the glory for this post, all it contains and the fact that it has been published on time! Yes, I AM human!
Happy New Year!
Scriptures related to today’s topic:
- Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled iwth plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Proverbs 3: 5-10
- Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Psalm 37:4
- Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. I Peter 5:7
- Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4
