Latest / The Rooted Family / Ep 34 | How to Build a Morning Rhythm That Keeps You Rooted in Chaos (A Husband & Dad's Perspective)
Transcript
- Christian Cornish: the goal isn't to have this awesome Christian morning that you get to share on Instagram with a picture of your coffee and be like, I'm spending time with Jesus. No, the goal is to build a rhythm that helps to become the person that your family needs you to be and the person you want to be. Well, hey everybody. This episode's gonna look a little different today because Kayla and I are actually not together. Kayla's with our daughter in the hospital right now. unfortunately she was admitted last night for a really bad infection. And so Kayla's with her and I'm gonna record solo today. And honestly, I I think there's something fitting about this topic we're talking about because when life gets disrupted. When your plans don't go the way you thought they would, you realize pretty quickly what's actually keeping you rooted or the lack thereof of feeling rooted in these moments to Jesus. And and that's what I want to talk to you about today is what keeps me rooted in Jesus, no matter what is going on in life. So maybe you wake up every morning feeling behind and the kids need you, your phone's buzzing. There's a million things on your mental list and you haven't even had a sip of coffee yet and already feel overwhelmed and exhausted. So what if your morning didn't have to begin that way? So today I'm gonna walk you through the simple rhythm I've practiced for over 10 years now and what I actually do, why I do it, and how you can build your own morning rhythm that helps you start your day rooted in Jesus. rather than immediately reacting to everything around you. And at the end of this conversation, we're going to talk about how can you start to build your own morning rhythm. And the goal of the morning rhythm isn't to win the morning, it's to begin the day rooted. So every day I get up early. So let's start there because I know this can feel really intimidating. Especially if you're someone who considers yourself a night owl or someone who just has a lot going on. And so the idea of trying to get up early, maybe to even have to give up a little bit of sleep, feels already like a massive, massive hurdle. And I'll just tell you, I get up early before the rest of my family. And It's not because mornings I think are necessarily more spiritual, but it is a space where I have uninterrupted time. It's the only time I can create that because even in the evening, after unwinding and just a day full of using my brain, managing other people's emotions, whether it's my kids especially or the people I work with or whatever, I'm just exhausted. So the the morning, even if I'm a little more on the tired side, I still wake up more refreshed in that time of day. And it gives me a chance to orient myself really and give myself a trajectory that I want to have the rest of the day. And so It's a chance to set the tone to start my day with Jesus rather than getting into my day and not feeling like I'm remembering him or having to work harder to recall him or remember to pray. in fact, I appreciate sometimes I wake up and just like you, I have all these anxieties and thoughts and tasks and my body wants to run already and it's just a moment to reset. And I think the morning is just the best and most valuable time that you can create for yourself. And I didn't wake up one day thinking I had this perfect time set aside or this perfect routine. But once I began to get into the morning rhythm, I loved it. I have loved it so much. That I look forward to getting up now. And I think that's the value is it's easier to get up when you have created something that you're excited about. And so that's my encouragement to you before we even get started into what does this look like, what to include, what not to include, all that stuff. Yeah, the most important thing really is to make sure that you Create a rhythm that you love and you're gonna wanna return to. And even on the days you feel spiritually drained or disconnected, you still will sit down and and do it and want to do it. And so I think it's it's just so important. I think the big things here are that this rhythm keeps me rooted in my relationship with Jesus. Jesus isn't something squeezed into the leftover parts of my day because I've I've woken up and given him the intentional first of my day. It keeps me rooted in Scripture. I have daily exposure to God's word. And this practice has kept me reading through his word year after year after year. And, you know, where David says that I've hidden your word in my heart, that I will not sin against thee. the only way you can hide God's word in your heart is to expose yourself to it. And so I love that I get to be rooted in scripture every day. And he gives me space to pray. I can tell you, especially when times are hard, the space for prayer is so important. And having that built into my day already allows me to come before God and empty myself and turn toward Him and rely on Him when times get really hard. The space is already there. And this morning rhythm also gives me emotional space. I really get a moment to examine what am I feeling, what am I carrying, express gratitude, think through what I'm struggling with. And I I really worked hard, probably more so in the last few years, to give myself that immediate space to not push my emotions aside and rather to notice them. And I think we'd all benefit from taking a moment each day to notice and process our emotions. And so this rhythm really gives you somewhere to bring what you're carrying. And Jesus says. Come to me all who are weary. And this is the time I do that every day. I get to do that, and I'm so excited about that. So that's what this rhythm does for me. But what does that actually look like? Well, I want to walk you through what a normal morning looks like for me. What do they actually look like overall? And truly, I really pretty much stick with this seven days a week. I can't think of a day that I really do anything different. And yes, I have days where maybe I compress this because I got like three hours of sleep. Obviously that's rare, but it's happened. I also have days where maybe I extend this because I I can get up earlier on a weekend because I haven't had such a drainy week. before I really jump into this, I don't want you to hear that I'm giving you a prescriptive morning that you must follow step by step by step. I'm not that guy, I'm not that expert. I think that you have your own walk with the Lord and you have your own life, you have your own family. But I do believe you need to have a morning rhythm. And so I just want to start by walking you through mine just to give you some inspiration, we'll call it. So first of all, I have got to have my first sip of coffee. I am not awake enough, even though I get up early every day to dive straight into deep reflection. I I just I'm not. I usually need about 10 to 15 minutes, honestly, just To wake up. And so I make my coffee, I grab my perfect bar, I I get my first sip in. And honestly, I keep it kinda light because my brain just needs that chance to wake up. And so I check my how the Red Sox did last night. I'm just gonna be honest. that is the first thing I do. it's fun, it it's most of the time enjoyable unless I'm enraged because they did terrible the night before. But I it just gives me a moment and it's it's not anything too serious. it's just a moment to kind of get my brain going and engaged, and I appreciate it. Not saying everybody needs to do that, it's just how I can kinda get my brain moving forward. And it doesn't have to be so serious from the moment you hit the floor. I think some people think a morning rhythm is boring or or is this deep reflection and they don't want to take time to do it. you can get up and do something fun or give yourself a moment of joy in the morning. after I check my baseball team, I gotta put the phone down. And I take just a moment of silence because if you're like me, and I think you are, your brain has already started churning at this point. And so I have to give myself a moment of silence to pause, to set the phone aside, to not do something about productivity. I don't go through my day yet. my brain, once I get into my day planning tasks. I can't turn it off. So I have to set the phone down and just put any of that kind of thinking aside. I'm not trying to fix anything. Instead, I'm I'm just taking a moment of quiet and just asking myself, how am I feeling? What am I caring? What am I anxious about? And and generally this truly kind of starts to lead itself into prayer. But I just want to say you you can't bring something to God that you're unwilling to acknowledge. And this moment is. So important because I can begin to acknowledge what's going on inside of me. And I think it's such a good way to start the day, Give yourself a moment to notice your feelings and what you're carrying and be ready to lay it before the Lord and not just hold it in your head any longer. I actually moved to journaling at this point. And I have a structure to my journaling. This comes after years of just kind of figuring out what works for me. some of it was suggestions from others. Some of this I've I've just tried over time and I I have stuck with it. but first I write at the top of the page: how has God been faithful? I mean, literally like one sentence, but it focuses my attention toward his goodness, no matter what's going on. And then From there I actually move toward affirmations. So I do a small paragraph of affirmations. Some of them are things that have helped me overcome sin in my life. Some of them address the wounds in my life that have been explored and that I want to walk with God continually to overcome. Some of them are affirming my own character, honestly. reminding myself of who God's made me to be. And some of them are things that I do know that God is calling me to grow in or become better at or more of. And I'm affirming who I know He sees me as. And I'll share a few of these affirmations with you right now. before I do, I just want to let you know that these are deeply personal. And so I would never prescribe you to copy these affirmations as they are. They need to be ones that the Lord has spoken over you. They need to be ones that speak to your soul and to your path of healing. Your journey with Christ. And so these affirmations are it's not all of mine, but it's it's a few of them. And they're deeply personal. They come from places of healing that I've had to personally walk through. And so just think it's really important to call that out. it's I think it's great to copy the practice, but I I would not encourage you to follow the words, if that makes sense. So here's a few that I write each day. the first one is I am enough and I am worthy to be ready for. I am loved and honored. I am a chosen son of the king of the universe. I am created for trust, intimacy, purity, and freedom. I am a healthy man who draws my strength from the Lord. I have the best wife and kids who deserve all of me. And I want to give myself to them. And I'm a protector of our home and an excellent steward of God's good gifts. So those are the affirmations that I write each day. They take up probably a quarter of my page each morning. but it's it's how I start my morning with the Lord and reaffirming who he sees me as before I get into the rest of the day. And hear all the other lies and messages that come my way. And honestly, I know they come your way too. So it's a great practice to have that really has enhanced my morning rhythm. Because the lies Of the powers of darkness are coming against us constantly. And I love John Mark Homer's book on this topic. If if you have not read it yet, it is definitely a must read, is called Live No Lies. And Wow, is this a powerful book? It's practical and it's deeply biblical about what the power of the enemy is, and truly it's lies. Lies against you, lies against all of us from the first moments in the garden. If you go read Genesis three, all the serpent does is lie. So why would we give those lies power over our life? And so reminding ourselves, reminding myself of who God sees me as has been extremely transformative. And so I just wanted to point that out that, you know, that's a very powerful practice for me personally. And then I go into a short journal for the day about what's been happening, what's going on, and that can be anything. Like some days it's just about what brought me joy. It's recording memories from the day before that I Would love to go back and see someday. Some days it's about what's hard. Some days it's about what I'm worried about. Some days it's about my hopes and dreams and prayers. It it can be about anything. And and honestly, for me, this sounds like a lot. It it's really just like one page is about all I do. It's all I really have capacity for and energy for. I don't mind writing, but I don't love writing. But for me, journaling has just become such an important part of my morning rhythm. And then I'm turning to scripture. I I look so forward to this every day, and it's where I get to slow down a little bit more. but I just want to share with you for Bible reading. I do follow a plan. I actually read through the Bible in a year. The last few years I've actually started reading through it a little bit faster. Which is pretty amazing. that's just the Lord's grace in my life of of learning to read the Bible and and learning to to love it more over the years. But I've literally used the exact same program for 10 to 11 years. And I don't even feel the need to reinvent that. If you actually came to me and said, Hey, you should read this devotion, I'd say, that's a really nice suggestion. Maybe I'll read it in my extra time. I have no desire at this point to reinvent how I've been going about reading scripture. For me, that consistency has just been so valuable. I just love reading God's word now. And it's that simple dedication daily that has really built that over time. And sometimes we can make the spiritual disciplines complicated because we're looking for God to give us some revelation every day. I don't know. I just read it to get to know him. Sometimes he speaks to me through that word. sometimes he doesn't. But that's not important anymore to me. I just love getting into God's word. And It's just been such a beautiful journey for me. even, over time I go back and I look in my journals and I'll be reflecting sometimes on certain passages or things God is teaching me. And it's really cool to go back and say, Wow, God was teaching me that then, or I was understanding that then, or wow, I've learned so much since then. And so daily scripture has just become such a valuable part of my life. And to be honest, this really came from watching my father. My dad got up every day before my mom and I and he actually went to work before I left for school. And he was up every morning reading his his Bible and praying. And so I guess when I became a man myself I really took this practice seriously. And it was from watching him my entire life, every day, get up and and be in God's word before he went about his day. And so I'm starting to realize that and I hope that is imprinted on my children that, you know, my dad never made a big deal about it. He never you know, told me this was super important. He never prescribed it. He never made me do it. He literally just did it. And I don't even know if he has a clue of the impact that that simple, faithful practice and rhythm that he has in his life has has had in mine. but what is shown is what is modeled. And so I just want to encourage you that today, you know, I know many of us want to impart these spiritual practices to our children. And I just want to encourage you to make sure you're practicing it and doing it yourself and just just modeling it, I think is more powerful than we could ever know. So that's my morning rhythm. what should your morning rhythm include? And so I want to hit on a few things that I think are practical. And these are kind of the uncompromising pieces. So the first is prayer, having time to talk with God, to pour yourself out to God, to Also pause and listen back. And this is an area I I'll just be vulnerable and say, I really, really struggle. I can go through a whole week and every day I'm like, gosh, I'm talking, I'm talking, I'm talking. And I really struggle with listening. But prayer is is so important to have as a part of our morning. And it doesn't matter what your role is in the church, if you're a minister, a layperson, an elder. Somebody who literally shows up once a year. but if if we call ourselves believers, then we believe we have access to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and that he wants to be a part of our life. And so if we want him to be a part of our life, communicating with him is necessary. And I think your morning rhythm should include scripture, hearing God through his word I told you before I read through the Bible in a year, and I'm not telling you that you have to do that. I am not prescribing that. That can be really intimidating. You may not have time. You may have been like, whoa, I don't even know where to begin. All that's to say is that's okay. Whether it's it's the verse of the day in the Bible app, whether it's a devotional, whether it's starting to read the Bible in a year, Whatever gets your heart excited, I want you to do. And I want you to do that with God's word, in your hand, in your heart. I also think you need a moment to pause, a time to notice what's happening internally as I've shared. I love Pete Schizero's work on emotionally healthy spirituality. Must read. He has several books. he does such an incredible gap. Of bringing emotions into our spiritual walk. And as a minister, he has started to write these books and dedicated the back half of his ministry years really to educating and bringing this back into our spiritual practice. Because what he realized is that a lot of people leave their emotions out of their spiritual walk with the Lord. And if you read the word of God, that is not what God wants of us. He wants all of us, including our emotions. And that is so beautiful and it's so healthy. so take a moment to notice your emotions and bring them before the Lord each day. And the last piece Is coffee. You must have coffee. my gosh, how do you live without coffee? I cannot live without it. Okay, that part's obviously a joke. it it can be negotiable. But I do want to say, you know, this doesn't have to be an hour, this doesn't have to be 15 minutes, I'm not prescribing any of that. It can take as long as you want, this can take as short as you want, but to include prayer, scripture. And a moment of pause, I think, will radically transform your walk with the Lord if you're not already doing this. And maybe it's time to evaluate your current morning rhythm. Maybe you do this, but it's time to say, I want to do a little more because I want a little more Jesus in my day. Or maybe it's time to say, I've been trying to do this at night, but I'm falling asleep. Or God's getting my leftovers. And instead of that, you really want to think about what does it mean to get up and do that in the morning. But I want to encourage you to build your own rhythm. So make sure you include those elements. And as I mentioned earlier, I would really put something fun in there. Maybe it's some music that you love to listen to. Maybe it's checking in on your favorite baseball team, which I hope loses to my baseball team, by the way. but do something that makes you smile. Journaling, something around personal growth. maybe it's checking out your slow and saver. Did you get your slow and saver in the mail yet this month? I know the last one's just went out recently. if you're listening to this in September of 26, and it's a beautiful work of art, and it can really help take a moment to bring your focus to the Lord and and see to see his beauty. Or maybe it's doing those journal prompts. prompts that come in there. Those are incredible journal prompts. And ones you can even revisit over and over and over again. But I encourage you to take a moment to do something that brings you joy. And if you're looking for a great way, you're like, hey, I'm doing all these things, you know, but I'm working with the Lord on some stuff. Maybe add in an area of personal growth. Maybe add in a moment for reading or learning or studying something. let me give you a practical example. I've wanted to grow in our financial stewardship. And so I actually check the budget for a few minutes every day. I check over our bank account, I look at the spending that we've done, and I look at the spending that's upcoming and it gives my attention to our finances. It gives an intentional moment to them each day. So I'm not avoiding this task. I'm not giving it my last energy of the day, which it kind of was before, to be honest with you. And that was really frustrating to me. It was frustrating to my wife. And so I've really found that just a brief daily check in has been giving me a lot more peace and helping me to live up to. my stewardship and leadership in the area of our finances. And so I've loved incorporating this. I'm actually finding joy and peace in doing that. Not something I'm saying everybody should do, but it gives me joy. I start my day with a a win, if you will, of I am stepping up to being the man God has called me to be. I can literally say that because I took the moment to do that every day. So I'm loving that. Overall my encouragement though to you all is not to necessarily copy my Formula here. It's not a formula, actually. It's just an example. And I want you to do what you need in the morning. So ask yourself: what do you need out of your morning? What's going to help you to connect with Jesus each day? What's going to help you to slow down? What's going to help you enter your day intentionally? What consistently brings you back to what matters most? Again, the goal isn't to have this awesome Christian morning that you get to share on Instagram with a picture of your coffee and be like, I'm spending time with Jesus. No, the goal is to build a rhythm that helps to become the person that your family needs you to be and the person you want to be. And to tie it all back to the beginning, I'm doing this every day, no matter what's going on. So right now Darla's in the hospital. That makes me really sad. And even though she's there and I'm here home with my other children, I'm still taking this intentional moment. If she was here, I would still be taking this intentional moment. If I was there in Denver with her right now, I would still be taking this intentional moment in our hotel room or Airbnb or or wherever I'd be. It doesn't matter because I'm going to take this moment with Jesus every day. And some days I have to shorten it. Some days I, like I said, I get the the blessing to lengthen it, or I even need to lengthen it because I'm a little more distressed. But the point is it keeps me rooted in Christ each and every day, no matter what's going on. And I just want to encourage you that if you're looking for something simple to add into your own rhythm, one of those things that Kayla has created is the Slow and Saver Society. It's really designed to give you these moments of pause. Every month you get a watercolor painting, journal prompts, and a little piece of Happy Mail that's meant to help you slow down and reflect. So if you're looking for something tangible to help you create a little more space in your morning, head over to legacyRotsco dot com and learn more about the Slow and Saver Society. Or maybe you'll even wanna gift it to somebody you know would really benefit from a moment of slowing down. So here's what I encourage you to do this week. Don't try to completely overhaul your morning tomorrow. That's a lot. That's overwhelming. Honestly, it probably won't be enjoyable and you won't want to stick with it. So instead, take 10 minutes and ask yourself what would help me begin my day rooted instead of reactive? And and choose a couple things. Maybe it's coffee. Like I said, a couple minutes in scripture, prayer. For you, maybe that's going to be journaling. You're just sitting with your phone down, quiet in silence. Whether you have 30 minutes, five minutes, or an hour, just pick the time. Start small, make it simple so you will repeat it each day, that you will enjoy it, and that you will look forward to waking up again the next morning because the power is returning to the rhythm again and again. So again. pick three simple elements like prayer, scripture, and pause, and do it for seven days. And don't worry about perfection. Just do your best and get it fit in. Because again, you don't need the perfect morning rhythm. You need a faithful rhythm. Well, we love you all. Thank you for being here. our prayers are with you as you begin to incorporate. this practice and rhythm into your life. And drop in the comments or drop us an email. Tell us if there's any other elements that I didn't mention. Tell us about your morning rhythm. Would love to hear it. Would love to encourage you. Thank you all for being here. And we'll see you next time on the Rooted Family Podcast.