Designing Your Morning Invitations












We're back again together, my dear friends!

I hope you are faring well during this seemingly endless season of quarantine, inconvenient closures, extremely altered routines, cancelled dreams, shopping with masks on, worshiping online.

And missing those precious close encounters with family and friends.

And reaching out to care for others in your own unique way.

And the continued fruitless search for toilet paper, Purell, and sanitizing wipes.

Really.

So many of those daily freedoms we've taken for granted are out of reach ... for now.  There are lots of moving parts and missing pieces that we have absolutely no control over and God only knows what our future will look like.

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If we pause to look inside somewhere deep, we'll discover that one missing link might be a craving for a steady grace-filled rhythm to our mornings.  Especially if we're finding the early hours to be unproductive and too random.  Or chaotic and crazed.  Or we're finding our journey to be rocky and unknown in this seismically unsettled season.  

Or we're feeling fragile or anxious, aimless or distracted.

Some might consider these rhythms as habits or disciplines, must-do's or routines.

But I much prefer to think of this call to a familiar morning cadence as an invitation from God, His direction for our soul's innate yearning for a steady, peaceful, productive daily launch in these most unnerving times. 

This is an invitation worth RSVP-ing YES to.  Because life's reality is that our pathway is filled with surprises.  Some are most pleasant and hoped for.  Others jump out from nowhere, shaking us to our core, gray and unbidden.

We have little control over how our days unfold.  So it's a very good thing when we're able to figure out what kind of routines best pave the way for the hours that will follow so that we're equipped with healthy, sane, and wise responses to whatever the Lord allows to come our way.


When we choose to tend to our souls, bodies, homes, and work in ways that are winsome and life giving, we will be more likely to be fortified with a spirit of peace, purpose, and gratitude as the day continues to evolve.

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THREE KEYS TO DESIGNING & LIVING OUT 
YOUR MORNING INVITATIONS

1.  PERSONAL
Your schedule is yours and yours alone.  Each of us has our own unique opportunities and challenges, especially during this incredible upheaval.  What might work for one might not work for the other.

2.  FLEXIBLE 
Nothing's cast in stone.  Expect to adjust or abandon, tweak or build on your choices as you daily live them out.  You might find that some invitations work better mid-day or in the evening.

3.  GRACE-FILLED 
We're not looking for perfection, but a steadiness of purpose.  Our ultimate goal is to honor Christ, not impress anyone else.  Let's take the pressure off ourselves to have somehow arrived and realize that all we can do is our best ... with the strength and fortitude that only God can provide.

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
ABOUT YOUR MORNINGS
1.  What's working for me right now?

2.  What's not working?

3.  What 3 non-negotiables do I need to have in place to start my day well?  { No worries, you can add more later!}

4.  What's my first step to making this happen?

Let's talk about what you'd like your mornings to look like ...
Linda


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