Peaceful Mornings Start with Prayer
It was 5:30am on a Monday. The all-too-familiar alarm jolted me awake. I had only fallen back asleep twenty minutes earlier after my usual 3am stare-at-the-ceiling session. And just like every Monday through Thursday, the race would begin. Time to hop myself out of bed, get ready for work, have the kids up and getting themselves ready by 6, make breakfast and lunch for all three of us, grab my coffee and head out the door by 6:35 to drop the kiddos off at before care by 7:15 and be to work by 7:20.
On paper, the routine looked well-oiled and fine-tuned. But that’s not how it felt in the day-to-day. Somewhere along the way, I had replaced peace with productivity — and this is what it actually felt like.
3am, wake myself up for no apparent reason and proceed to toss and turn for a couple hours while my mind races with all of the things that bothered me the day before, and all of the things that have not happened yet but will surely bother me today. 5-5:10am, drift back to sleep. 5:30am jolt back awake to one of the sounds I dread most, the alarm.
Continue to lay in bed until about 5:45 until finally begrudgingly rolling out and then scrambling to get myself ready in 15 minutes so I can be done before waking the kids up at 6. Wake up kiddos – who aren’t any happier to be awake that early than I am. Race to make lunches and coffee and throw together three breakfasts that can be eaten in the car on our way.
All while yelling from the kitchen that they’d better be out of bed, better be getting dressed, teeth and hair brushed, better be getting their shoes and coats on etc. Finally, 10 minutes past our “need to leave by” time, we’re out the door.
I felt like I had already failed the day and it wasn’t even 9am. And what was worse, I had passed that feeling on to my kids. I knew I needed a new routine; a way to start the day in peace rather than chaos.
Reframing the Mornings Through Faith
As I sat pondering what kinds of changes I could make to give us the peace we so desperately needed, I recalled a conversation I had recently had with my sister. She told me that often if she woke up in the early morning hours while everyone was still sleeping, she would lay in her bed and pray. This reminded me of part of a devotional I had just listened to the day before, in which the speaker advised that we should pray in the early morning hours.
He described the hours between 3 a.m. and sunrise as sacred — a quiet space where the Lord’s voice doesn’t have to compete with the noise of the world. That’s when I realized, peace wasn’t about perfection. It was about posture.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
-Philippians 4:7
That was the promise I had been missing. The peace didn’t come from controlling the morning. It came from surrendering it.
What “Peaceful” Actually Means
Afterall, what is peace anyway? Some might consider it to be absent of noise, or think of a cool breeze on a hot day. I however, think that peace is both intentional and flexible. True peace is the feeling of being so cared for by Him, that it can be felt even in the moments of uncontrollable chaos.
My Simple Morning Framework (New Routine to Promote a Peaceful Morning)
With all this in mind, I decided there was no better way to poise myself for a peaceful morning than to start by giving thanks and my worries to God. My new morning routine would start with quiet prayer and petition, as well as His word rather than with the alarm clock. So, I started dragging my tired self out of bed whenever those 3am wakings happened.
Now I know the thought of starting the day at 3am sounds absolutely awful, but I figured what was the point of tossing and turning in my bed when I could be doing something I was going to do later anyway? And no, I don’t get up at 3am every day. It’s usually more like 5:30am these days, and around 7 on the weekends thank goodness. Here’s what the new routine looks like:
1. Anchor
Prayer. Scripture. Gratitude.
2. Self-Care
Hydration. Hygiene. Coffee or Breakfast.
3. Prepare
Lunches. Backpacks. A calm start.
4. Grace
When it’s messy, choose gentleness over guilt.
Letting Go of the Guilt
Now if you’re like me you will have a tendency to beat yourself up on days when you deviate from that new healthy plan you’ve created. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started and stopped a morning reading routine or new workout routine and then missed a few days so I decided that since I failed to do it perfectly, I had to start over from the very beginning.
Eventually I came to an alarming realization. For some reason after several failed attempts, I would decide that if I couldn’t do it perfectly, it wasn’t worth doing at all. I can’t even begin to describe how discouraging this mind set is! And if you’ve ever put this much pressure on yourself just as I have, I’m sure I don’t have to.
It’s not going to be perfect. There are going to be some mornings that the early morning prayer and reading before sunrise do not happen. Maybe the kids had a sleep-over and they kept you up all night or you have a head cold or a migraine. We’re human. We’re not meant to be perfect. Give yourself some grace in those moments of imperfect humanism.
Takeaway
Stop letting your past failures define you. Don’t beat yourself up for doing things differently than you wish you would have in the past. You don’t have to do a complete 180 all at once to make a difference in your life and the lives of your children. Small, intentional shifts matter!
In my 11 years as a dental hygienist, I can’t tell you how many times I heard a patient tell me how embarrassed they were about how long it had been since they had been to the dentist. My response was always “You’re here now, and that’s what matters. We will help get you back on track.” Start where you are now. Make small, intentional changes. Stop demanding perfection of yourself. Remember, peace doesn’t start when the house is quiet. It starts when your heart is surrendered. And when you choose faith over frenzy, your home will feel it.