How to Morning Routine Your Summer 2020

We’d need little convincing to agree that this summer will be atypical, at least by some measure. Here in Kentucky the news that pools would not be opening as usual was a tough one to swallow. More things around us are slowly reopening, but it will still look different and certainly feel different. We will be home far more of the summer than we anticipated just a few short months ago—home with kids who don’t want to be bored and long hours of sun that keeps them from sleeping and relaxed enough rules to allow plenty of time playing with neighbors.

So why talk about a morning routine now, rather than the myriad of other ways we can lean into missional living when we are neighborhood-bound for the summer?

Here’s why. Summer is prime time for connecting with neighbors. It’s easier to spend time outdoors, and that visibility makes it simpler to get to know neighbors better. We will dive into conversation about how we can be intentional this summer with inviting our neighbors into our lives, but it’s equally important to let what we do overflow from who we are.

That’s where a morning routine comes in.

Our morning routine is a chance to be intentional about the start of our day. It’s where we connect with God in the quiet. It’s also the practice of a rhythm that lends stability to our days in a season where we may have little else that is consistent.

Have you ever carefully packed your Bible when you are going on vacation, but then realize in the unpacking that you might have opened it only once—if you are lucky. Yeah, me too. More often than not. Even when I’ve been consistent in spending that time in the morning with just me and God, the disruption to the usual pushes it to the back of my mind. I don’t make a conscious decision to not pick up my Bible, I just forget about it altogether.

Summer too, and perhaps especially this one, is also a break from our rest-of-the-year routines. Fewer options for scheduled activities may leave us feeling like we are floundering, untethered. We are entering a both-and season where the sun both refreshes our souls and exhausts our bodies, where less to do can create more work, where anticipation and disappointment coexist.

A morning routine in the summer can tether us to what we’ve determined is most important. It gives us ground to stand on in the midst of uncertainity that still envelops us. It anchors us, infuses ordinary moments with purpose, and lets us intention which will be the loudest voice in our ear.

The voice that tells us that we deserve our usual summer. The voice of disappointment or discontentment or ceaseless striving. The voice that tells us we have to earn all we are and prove ourselves through what we do.

Or the voice of the Father who calls us beloved. The voice of grace, the voice of truth. The voice of Spirit-infused guidance. The voice of One who first loved us so we can love Him back and love those around us well.

Memorial Day was a sneak peek at summer, and I was grateful for my morning routine because the following hours were full of extra kids and little time to even think about anything else. It’s hard to pour out when we are not first filled because we were never meant to. And at the core of missional living is a rhythm of spending time with God.

The morning routine I’ve adopted is inspired by two women whose words and beautiful lives have been tremendously influential to me. The main structure I learned from episode 90 of Emily P. Freeman’s The Next Right Thing, where Emily shares her morning routine model of PRWRP.

The first P (Prayer) is where I begin. Emily suggested something short and simple, and that it’s OK if it’s the same prayer every day. The prayer I begin with is one I scratched out in my journal one day, and I’ve stuck with it since then.

You may have it all, Lord, every part of my heart, every thought that beats within, the tension in all my questions, my self-righteous, self-pitying temptations.

R is for Read, and in this first segment Emily reads a passage of Scripture. I’ve been following reading plans in my She Love Truth journaling Bible, but I often take a few days to get through the passages listed for a single day. I find that if I slow down I think more deeply about what I’ve read.

W is for Write. Here is where I bring something from Ann Voskamp into my morning routine. I may first handwrite a verse that resonated with me from my scripture reading, but then I continue my ongoing gratitude list. If you have never tried keeping a gratitude journal, I can’t recommend Ann’s book, One Thousand Gifts, highly enough. It’s one of those books that will forever change you.

The second R is also for Read, and I follow Emily’s suit in reading a little from an inspirational book that draws me closer to God. A few of my favorite books I’ve read since starting a morning routine are Emily P. Freeman’s The Next Right Thing, Ann Voskamp’s books (yes, all of them), The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile, Michelle Cushatt’s Relentless, and Bekah Bowman’s Can’t Steal My Joy.

The last letter is another P (Prayer), which bookends the morning routine in prayer. I typically pray the Lord’s Prayer.

5 tips for creating YOUR summer morning routine

As you can see, I’ve adapted Emily P. Freeman’s PRWRP morning routine model so it fits me. Feel free to take the same liberty as you craft or adapt a routine that is a great way for YOU to start YOUR morning. Here are some tips to guide you:

• Do what you can. Setting an unrealistic goal is setting yourself up to fail. If you want your morning routine to stick, try something that takes just 5-10 minutes if you have little time margin right now.

• Set a time. Consistency is key to habit-forming. Set a time to begin and end your morning routine, but understand that much of life is a both/and, not an either/or. You can have structure and grace for yourself, commitment and flexibility. If you miss a day or the time of day you’ve set, just jump back in and keep going!

• Start today. Putting it off until tomorrow, or until you’ve settled on the perfect routine, makes it all the easier to not start until it’s convenient, and it likely won’t feel convenient at first.

• Tell someone. Simply voicing your intention to someone else increases your chances to beginning, and sticking with, your morning routine.

• Come with expectation. James 4:8 carries a promise: “Move your heart closer and closer to God, and he will come even closer to you” (TPT). God longs to be near us and promises that He will move closer when we pursue Him.

I mentioned episode 90 of The Next Right Thing podcast because this is the episode specifically about PRWRP. However, there is another episode—number 76—that also is a goldmine of gentle tips for how to begin a morning routine. I encourage you to take a listen if you haven’t already.

As we close, I wanted to share that I have not always been consistent with a morning routine. Usually everything inside me is fighting against what feels like the constraints of a schedule. So if that’s you today too, and you have made it this far, thank you for reading. My hope and prayer is that you too can experience how an intentional few minutes at the start of your day doesn’t have to limit you. Instead, it can move you faster in the direction you want to go. Instead of being a burden, it can set you free from the burden of working and striving and hustling to create the life you want to live.

In the slow moments before the pace of your day picks up, I encourage you to “come near to Him” and let Him fill you to overflowing as He in turns draws ever closer to you.

Jesus, You are our first love, and we choose to again put You first. Would You awaken our yearning to know Your nearness, Your fullness, You glory-filled presence? I pray Romans 15:13: “Now may God, the inspiration and fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super-abundance until you radiate with hope!” (TPT). In your holy and precious name, Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Just a friend over here in your corner,

Change your actual life in less than 5 minutes per day!

You can change your actual life in less than 5 minutes a day because baby steps truly can change the trajectory of your life. If you want 2021 to be the year you actually start living on mission in your neighborhood, this little book (available as a paperback and on Kindle) will help you get there. Each of the 30-day devotions takes but a few minutes to read, but they will lead to lasting life change.

Wish you knew your IRL (in-real-life) neighbors?