Creating Your Morning Ritual

While researching mornings recently, I became obsessed with studying the morning rituals of historical figures, entrepreneurs, inventors, politicians, and artists. There’s a collective fascination with how successful people start their day, and how those first hours can affect a day, even a life.

I wanted to determine if it would be possible to duplicate their results by adhering to their rituals. 

Mindset of Choosing

What I discovered was something far simpler—and far more important—than I would have imagined. Many of the people I studied had adopted what I’ll call a “mindset of choosing.” They chose to believe that good was possible every morning. They chose to believe that good work could be done for the betterment of the world. For those of faith, they chose to believe that God had good plans for their lives, every morning. And they chose to believe that each new day offered a fresh start.

Take, for instance, Benjamin Franklin. His morning routine is perhaps the earliest recorded morning routine in US history—the beginning of the American obsession with doing mornings right. Franklin’s morning routine was less about structured habits and more about adopting this mindset of choosing. He wanted to see the world rightly, as well as his place in it. In his autobiography, Franklin wrote that every day, he would “rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness!”

What optimism!

Franklin asked a singular question at the start of every morning: “What good shall I do this day?”^⁠ There’s no mention of smashed avocado on artisan toast. No reference to a triathlon before 7 a.m. each day.

This much is clear based on the morning rituals of successful people like Franklin:

Mindset matters when you create your morning ritual.

We don’t want to get so caught up in what we are “doing” every morning that we forget the beauty of “being” with the One who made the morning in the first place.

Watch the Morning Light

Can you see a little clearer than before how, for your whole life, God has loved seeing you come awake to his world every day? He has been beside you in your morning rising, morning work, morning worship, and morning walk. He also wants to meet you when you are waiting, worrying, wandering, and weeping.

That’s a lot of Ws. And I’ve got one more W for you.

In your watching.

Watch the morning light rise over your very being, with your favorite Morning Person keeping watch with you, God.

Imagine it like this:

You sit next to God, somewhere out in this grand old world where the sky opens up wide, facing the morning horizon.

God stretches out his arm and points to that thin line where sky kisses Earth, a soft indigo fading into a faint blush of dawn. He pulls you close so you can look straight down his arm and toward the sunrise.

“Watch what I can do,” he says.

And it happens. The sun peeks over the line.

Let there be light.

It gets brighter, so bright you can’t look straight at the light anymore.

God is here. He is holding you close—so close you can hear his heart beating.

He won’t let go.

Can you feel it?

Whatever good thing you’re facing today, God celebrates with you.

Also—whatever battle stares you down this morning, he is already with you in it, and he is inviting you to the best seat in the house—right next to him. The One who brings the brightest light to illuminate the world . . . is bringing light to your life.

There is no God like our God, who deliberately chooses to sit with us in every darkness while we wait for the light of morning.

Reflection: Pray this Morning Manna today: I can rely on God’s morning-­making power in every kind of morning by adopting a “mindset of choosing”—­choosing to believe that each day offers a fresh start with the One who made a morning before he made anything else on Earth.

If you liked this blog, check out How to Love Your Morning by Jennifer Dukes Lee. We love how she includes reflective questions and practical advice. This book is your invitation to create a morning routine that fits your real life so you can experience God’s mercies new every morning.

Jennifer Dukes Lee lives on the fifth-generation Lee family farm in Iowa, where she and her husband are raising crops, pigs, and two beautiful humans. She writes books, loves queso, and enjoys singing too loudly to songs with great harmony. Once upon a time, she didn’t believe in Jesus; now he’s her CEO. Find Jennifer at JenniferDukesLee.com and on Instagram at @JenniferDukesLee.