Morning Time Magic WEEK 1- RITUAL

Well here we are!
First step to Morning time is HAVING IT!
But just a re-visit to the question of "why?"

The way I see it, a "coming together" first thing helps make the First and Best Things the First things in our hearts.

This is where we begin the Ritual aspect of Morning Time.
We do it each day.
It is a liturgy.
A virtue-building training.

My guess is that our desire is to feed our children a diet of virtue-building meals.

So, for us, the First thing is Jesus. It is only through Him we will develop this virtue.  It is His grace and that grace alone that changes us, but we can posture ourselves to be fertile ground for what He is planting into us.

I wish I were to recognize more regularly, that desperate need for communion with my Maker like Luther did.

There is no greater momentum-builder for mania than feeling the press to "get into the day" and check off the lists. I think we all know how those urges can steamroll us right into drudgery, impatience and general crabbiness, so for me, placing this time first, slows me down internally and physically.  It gets mama on the right track when I am so prone to running down the wrong one, full-speed ahead.

And I'll tell ya- the days we miss this time we FEEL it. (even though its a relatively new practice in our lives- thank you Sara Mackenzie) 

Week One's assignment is to come together for prayer.

Soren Kierkegaard said: the function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Last week, I showed my daughters the Samaritan's Purse video of Middle Eastern refugees being received on a Greek island shore. It is heartbreaking. and inspiring. Babies in life jackets, shivering after what we mapped out to be potentially 300 miles' journey on the Mediterranean ( at least by our maps' scale ) with no certainty of landing anywhere. Overstuffed rafts with only a couple oars. Mothers and grandmothers. No obvious belongings.

It moved us to PRAY. and pray, we did.

This was one of those "serendipitous" (I call that Holy-Spirit led) moments where the "magic" happened.  It was that lucky organic moment that you know Jesus led you toward. I couldn't have planned it. I'm not that good. But it did show me how easy it will be to open little eyes [and big old ones] to the plight of others on a regular basis.

Everywhere around us are people to pray for. We have much to confess, much to be thankful for, many burdens to share with a lost, hurt, dying world. This won't be hard.

One area of virtue I think we all agree on is that we want to raise humans who care for others, defend the helpless and SEE those around them as precious. Prayer is a great catalyst for pretty much EVERY good thing.

Oswald Chambers noted:

We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there's nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.

Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don't want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of 'good time' is seldom in sync with ours. 

The bonus assignment is:

Read something.

Let's go with a quick story from William Bennett's Children's Book of Virtues

or The Book of Virtues.

Typically they are short, they address character and are beautifully written.
Even Shorter- Aesop's Fables.
Good lessons, bite sized dose, animal characters usually - so for little munchkins- it'll hold their attention. This edition has rich language and weaves the tale beautifully without "updated" language that loses the punch.

So... are you ready to give it a try?

Next week- we'll plant another seed. BOOM. easy.