Read, Pray, and Hug Before You Click

In the summer:
Kids get themselves up sometime before seven, big kids put on TV, and they loaf around in PJs.  I get up when I'm ready (or when the baby is stinky and hollerin' beside my bed.)  I make coffee, check email, and ease into the morning. I make breakfast for them when I am good n' ready.

Ahhhh.

During the school year:
I get up when they do (I know, some people say you should get up earlier than your kids, but they always hear the coffeepot, so what's the point?)  We jump out of bed and into our shoes. We plow through our morning jobs, and we get everyone together in time for school.
They talk and fight over the cereal box and I pester them to eat two more bites.  We hunt for the hairbrush and I check my email real quick while they are chewing.  I change the baby and pack the snacks and shoo them out the door because they're almost late.

And they leave, dressed and fed, but what have we forgotten? Did we hug? Did we pray? Did I look in their eyes or say a kind word to them?

I don't know. We probably forgot. I probably got sidetracked.
I could say I am too task-oriented.
I could also say I am too me-oriented.

Both things are true.  The way I gravitate towards my internet fix in the morning is just another symptom of me putting me first.

I don't want to send them to school with empty stomachs.
They need food.
They need mommy-love.
They need the Word of God.




Read the Bible- for me and for the children.
(Alternatively, let the Ipod do the reading while we eat.)

Pray- for myself and with the children.
We say Luther's Morning Prayer on the porch before they leave.

Hug- Greet the kids with affection when you first see them in the morning and before they leave for the day. Look into their eyes and speak kind words.


I have again given the kids permission to hold me accountable here. (Aggie loves her other nagging license. If you need someone to hold you accountable, just ask Aggie.)

No clicking until these things are done, and no clicking until the big kids are gone to school.

I want my children to grow up thinking this is normal:

It's normal for mom to listen to me.
It's normal for me to work in the morning.
It's normal for me to pray with my mom and dad every day.
It's normal to be loved and hugged.
It's normal to hear God's Word every day.

May God be with us in this new normal,and grow us in love for Him and each other.

Luther’s Morning  Prayer
I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this
night from all harm and danger. Keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my
doings and life may please you. Into your hands I commend my body and soul and all things. Let
your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me. Amen.

Do you get distracted by technology or other things in the morning?

What do you want your  "normal" morning to look like?