4:13 Podcast: Can I Start a Morning Ritual Like Jesus Had? With Jennifer Dukes Lee

Jennifer Rothschild: Hey, 4:13ers, this is Jennifer, and I just need to ask you something. Can I please hear from you? You guys have gotten to hear from me for so many years on The 4:13, but I want to hear from you. I need to hear your heart. I want to know what you care about. And here's how we're gonna do it.

I have got a survey waiting for you. It is on your Show Notes. Whatever podcast platform you are listening on right now, you can find your Show Notes and there will be a link to a survey. It'll take you three to five minutes, and it'll just help me know what's in your heart, what's in your head, what your thoughts are, what your hopes are, what you enjoy, because really we want to make the 4:13 Podcast exactly what meets your needs.

So go to your podcast player -- you can always find, though, Show Notes at 413podcast.com -- and let me hear your voice as you click on that survey and take five minutes to share with me.

Now here's the podcast.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: I have an incredible opportunity to set my daily intentions and expectations around the heart of God. And then for the remainder of my day, the very best things that happen are made even better purely by me having developed a morning awareness that blessings that come my way later in the day are not by chance, they are from God.

And that the worst things in a day are in a way made more bearable because that very morning I had already assured myself of God's presence and protection and provision and all those kinds of things.

Jennifer Rothschild: Wouldn't you just love to build a life that you love one morning at a time? Well, you can, because today author Jennifer Dukes Lee is back on the podcast and she is going to show you how to wake up with hope, joy, and purpose, experiencing the new mercies of God every single morning.

Oh, she is going to teach you how to customize your own morning ritual, and she will explain to you how Jesus handled his mornings. And guess what? You're going to find out why she says that you, me, all of us, we are all morning people. Okay, surprise.

So, okay, morning people, this is going to be a good one, so let's go.

KC Wright: Welcome to the 4:13 Podcast, where practical encouragement and biblical wisdom set you and I up to live the "I Can" life, because you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Now, welcome your host, Jennifer Rothschild.

Jennifer Rothschild: Hey, our friends. That's KC Wright, my Seeing Eye Guy, and it's two friends here in the podcast closet. And, oh, we got so much good stuff going on this summer.

KC Wright: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: Wait till you hear. Okay, you don't have to wait. You already heard something. Because at the top of this, I asked you to fill out a survey. Okay? Now, that's what I want to make sure you understand, that we want to hear from you. So I want you to fill out that survey when the podcast is done, because seriously your voice matters to us.

And part of the reason we want to hear your thoughts and feelings and opinions is because there's something very special happening around here in a few weeks.

KC Wright: Woot, woot.

Jennifer Rothschild: So I want to make sure you're involved, and I want to hear your heart so that what we do reflects what you care about.

Now, the other thing, KC, we need them to do is follow this podcast. Now, some of you are like, What? I am listening right now. Well, here's what I mean by follow. There used to word "subscribe." Remember?

KC Wright: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: On a lot of the podcast platforms --

KC Wright: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- they'd say "subscribe." Well, all the platforms now use the new word "follow." So whether you listen on Spotify or Apple, or anywhere you listen, you're going to see the word "follow." Here's what happens when you press "follow." You automatically are notified any time there is a new podcast or any time something new might be happening on the podcast.

So if you've never followed the podcast, you can do it right now while you're listening. Just hit "follow." It does not obligate you to anything, those of you who are nervous, it just means you guys get to be part of the family and you get to hear from us more easily. Okay? So if you don't already follow, just hit "follow." That way you will not hit the big news.

Okay. And the other thing I want you to know, we have a very special guest. Because in just a few weeks, Episode 413.

KC Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: This is the 4:13 Podcast, KC. We were just talking -- how many years?

KC Wright: Oh, my goodness.

Jennifer Rothschild: We've done this what, seven years?

KC Wright: Seven years.

Jennifer Rothschild: Wow. Y'all, that's amazing.

KC Wright: Seven years.

Jennifer Rothschild: We started in fall of 2018, and on -- in just a couple weeks it'll be Episode 413. So I have asked one of my very special friends, whom you love, to be our very special guest for the last podcast. Okay. So I don't want you to miss it.

KC Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: All right. The other thing I want you to know -- now, I'm not going to tell you too much, but I will tell you this. The reason you need to follow, the reason you need to tune in to 4:13 is because the podcast is gonna get a new look.

KC Wright: A facelift, if you will.

Jennifer Rothschild: A facelift.

KC Wright: Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: A new sound.

KC Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: But don't worry, it's the same great content that you have loved and has helped you grow.

Yeah, it's been a spring around my house where I've been redoing my floors and -- yeah, I'm in it, man. We are -- things sometimes just need to be updated.

KC Wright: Updated. Absolutely. And, J.R. is speaking truth on that follow button she's encouraging you to do. Because, like, this morning I woke up to new notifications --

Jennifer Rothschild: Yep.

KC Wright: -- that a 4:13 had dropped.

Jennifer Rothschild: Right.

KC Wright: Because I follow on different platforms, and so my phone was telling me, hey, new podcast, get in there.

Jennifer Rothschild: And you're like, thank you, phone.

KC Wright: And you matter.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

KC Wright: So I always picture, when we do this podcast, that we're literally sitting at a round table. How rude would it be if Jenn and I did all the talking and you never got to jump into the conversation? That's rude.

Jennifer Rothschild: That's rude.

KC Wright: Jenn and I are hee-hawing over here with our besties. No, no. You're our bestie and your voice matters.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. Okay, that's good.

KC Wright: So we want you to speak up.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

KC Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: So you'll just be able to go to -- wherever platform you're listening, you'll see the Show Notes there and you can just see the survey. It's right there, it's an easy link, it'll take you three minutes, and it'll make a big difference, so...

I'll tell you what else is going to make a big difference, is my friend Jennifer.

KC Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: Because we're going to talk to another Jennifer today. And, oh, my goodness, y'all, I have loved having her on the podcast before. And this one, KC, exceptional. And did you hear me say at the beginning, my people, we're all morning people? Like, some of you are like, what in the world? You're about to find out what in the word. All right?

So, KC, introduce Jennifer Dukes Lee.

KC Wright: Jennifer Dukes Lee is a best-selling author and speaker from Iowa. She's the author of several books including "Growing Slow," "It's All Under Control," and "Stuff I'd Only Tell God." Today she and Jennifer are talking about her latest book called "How to Love Your Morning." It's gonna be so good.

Jennifer Rothschild: So good.

KC Wright: All right, here are the Jennifers.

Jennifer Rothschild: I love it.

All right, Jennifer, I'm happy to have you back on the podcast. We were talking before we went on mic how our names are similar, which means our ages are somewhat similar.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: That's right.

Jennifer Rothschild: This name was definitely part of a decade.

But, you know, when you were on last time, I just remember how wise and insightful and refreshing our conversation was. And as I reviewed what we're going to talk about today, I thought this is going to be the same. Because you have written a book that is all about mornings. And what I understand that you did is that you studied over 200 mornings in the Bible.

So first of all, I love it when somebody just picks a topic and digs deep. So you studied over 200 mornings. And I don't know what it is, but I do know that you discovered something that really blew your mind. So spill it. What was it that you discovered?

Jennifer Dukes Lee: All right, Jennifer. So you're right, like, when I was going in to write this book about mornings, I didn't exactly know the angle I was going on. That's its own backstory. But I knew that whatever the angle was, it needed to be foundationally set upon the Scriptures.

So I went, like, completely open handed to see what God had to say about mornings. And it turns out that mornings aren't just kind of a movement or a shift in time from night to day. They're really, really important.

The first morning that I studied happened on the first pages of Scripture, and in Genesis I discovered that the very first thing that God created on this earth was a morning when he said, "Let there be light." How cool is that?

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. Wow. I never thought of that.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: I know. I hadn't either. And then I kept going through the Scriptures and I -- you know, you see how God provides in the morning, like, in really unexpected ways.

Think about the Israelites and they wake up and find breakfast laying on the ground in the form of manna morning after morning. We encounter people like Abraham doing really hard things first thing in the morning, like taking your son Isaac up that mountain. Like, God calls people to these really difficult things. And if we have difficult mornings, the Scriptures and the characters we meet in the Scriptures, they understand it.

And then we come to verses like, "His mercies are new every morning," or, "Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning." We get to the New Testament and we encounter the hardest morning ever to unfold on this earth, when at 9 AM on a Friday morning Jesus was crucified. And three days later, the most glorious morning in the history of our world when he broke out of his tomb alive. And, of course, then in Revelation we see Jesus reintroducing himself to us as the Bright Morning Star.

So again and again I was encountering these beautiful truths about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit. And the surprising thing that I came to know on account of the study of every single morning in Scripture was this: that God is a morning person. And because we are made in his image, that means we are too. We are all morning people.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay. Well, that's what I was about to ask you. Okay. So that's a bold assertion, Jennifer, that we are all morning people. So are you saying that that is true because we're made in his image? And then, like, how does that show up if that is true?

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Yes. So I think first of all we have to define what a morning person is. For all of our lives, most of us have an idea that a morning person is somebody who gets up, like, at 5:00 AM, maybe does some major hour-long workout, then has, like, a gourmet breakfast and exegetes the entire book of Leviticus, then irons their bedsheets.

And all of this happening before 8:00 AM, when a lot of us are just, like, getting out of bed with our hair sticking out in ten different directions trying to figure out where the coffee maker is and why -- how can I get my first cup now? So I think that we base this idea of morning person on the time of day and all that we can, quote, accomplish in the first minutes of a day.

But being a morning person, as a Christian it is not a clock thing; it is a God thing. It is not about the hour you wake up; it is about who you wake up to be. It is about how you show up. It is about believing that God's mercies really are new every morning and not just looking at those verses and thinking, oh, that would be really cute to put on my coffee mug, but, like, that's a way to live, like, to believe that his mercies are new every morning.

And there really isn't a person I know that doesn't want to believe that. I think, you know, we all want to believe that God's mercies are new every morning, but what does it look like to actually live that way? And so that's the message that I'm bringing.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay. Well, that is a very liberating message.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: Because I think some may have already thought, oh, I don't know about this. I'll check her out, but I'm not a morning person. But you just basically said if we're in Christ, we are morning people. And I love the liberty that "morning" does not mean a certain time of day.

And by the way, when you gave that description of the quote/unquote morning person who's up at 5:00, they tend to chatter or whistle also with all of that activity, which is really mind-blowing. So I love that liberty.

So one of the things that you talk about in your book -- well, in fact, you use some different wording. So I'm curious, why did you replace the words that we're used to, like morning routine -- because we all have what we think are morning routines. Why did you replace those words with the idea of a morning ritual? Like, what is the difference? Why'd you do that? Why does that matter?

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Well, when I hear the word "routine," to me it feels performative. A routine feels routine. And I don't get all that motivated by things that I have to do that feel routine, that feels the same. I do, however, get very motivated by something that feels like a ritual, something that feels inherently sacred, holy, meaningful. And not just in the big ways of -- you know, like major church rituals -- which I also love.

Jennifer Rothschild: Sure.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: But I mean these little moments in our ordinary lives that we can name as ritual. So they're just an automatic imbuing of something sacred when we call something ritual.

So for me, they are -- when I go have my first cup of coffee in the morning, I will say out loud into my kitchen, "This is my coffee ritual." And saying that out loud brings an awareness to me that this is one of God's gifts to me in the morning.

And on top of that ritual of drinking a warm, hot cup of coffee, I have my prayer ritual. I have on my -- posted right beside my coffee maker, I have a list of names on our church bulletin -- we still have those church bulletins in our little country church -- and I pray for those people in my church family every morning when I'm having my coffee.

So I'm tying my coffee ritual to my prayer ritual, and it feels holy. It feels a part of God's work in the world. I feel like I'm co-laboring with him and I'm relating with him right away in the morning in a way that I wouldn't feel if this was my routine.

I think it's so important -- like, how we name things is so important, and it creates an environment of inviting God's presence and acknowledging God's presence, whether it is stepping outside under a big open sky and saying, "Ah, this is my step outside ritual," or, "This is my pray for other people ritual." "This is my candle lighting ritual," if you like to light a candle before your morning time with the Lord. Whatever it can be, it can be elevated simply by the fact of calling it a ritual.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay, I love that. Well, I love words anyway. "Ritual" is such an inviting word.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: It is.

Jennifer Rothschild: And you even said it invites God into what could be a routine and -- at least in your imagination, in your sacred imagination. And I love that.

So I do a lot of those things, but I think I'm going to begin to identify them and name them, because that really makes a difference. It also, I would think, Jennifer, helps us kind of slow down and become a part of something we're doing. Whereas routines, sometimes we can just get so used to them, we just skate through them and don't even pay attention.

So I'm curious, though, as I hear you describe all that -- I'm thinking of, like, my daughter-in-law who has five children. I'm thinking about the person, you know, who works nights, or just caring for somebody who's ill or whatever. Like, normal morning routines, or even rituals, like, they just feel impossible and unattainable, or at least nothing they can do with consistency. What do you say to that person?

Jennifer Dukes Lee: I say to that person, I see you, I am you. I've been through so many seasons of my life, from the doubting college student that didn't even know if Jesus was real, so, like, why take time to read the Bible; to a busy newspaper reporter feeling like I didn't have time to open the Scriptures; to being a young mom when quiet time felt anything but quiet; to being a daughter who also became my father's -- one of my father's primary caregivers when he was on Hospice.

What I learned during all of those seasons is that I cannot wait for perfect conditions to decide that I want to meet with God at the front end of the day. That is the most important thing that I can do. And that isn't to say that it has to look perfect. This message is not about having a perfect morning ritual or having how many ever minutes of quiet time you have squeezes some amount of holiness on to your day. It's not about that at all.

There is no harp music or fancy latte art in my life. I don't have, like, tomes of color-coded commentaries. My penmanship isn't pretty inside of my journals. But what I have always done, ever since I've been a believer, is known how important it is to -- the first thing in the morning to acknowledge that I have an incredible opportunity to set my daily intentions and expectations around the heart of God.

And then for the remainder of my day, the very best things that happen are made even better purely by me having developed a morning awareness that blessings that come my way later in the day are not by chance; they are from God. And that the worst things in a day are in a way made more bearable because that very morning I had already assured myself of God's presence and protection and provision and all those kinds of things.

So it's not about doing it a certain way you see on TikTok or Instagram. It's not about doing it in a performative way. It may look -- like, you may have to shrink it down in certain seasons of your life. But thinking through how can I encounter God in the first parts of my day? How can I take care of my physical body, making sure that I'm taking my supplements or medications, having a good breakfast, hydrating myself, moving my body?

It's like a full holistic approach toward taking care of yourself and being really intentional about it. And setting a tone not only for your home and for yourself, but also for the people that are observing you. You're helping them learn and create patterns in their own lives.

When I was a young mom, I thought, I don't know if this is mattering. I don't know if any of the stuff that I'm doing in my, quote, quiet time is mattering at all. But when I was writing this book, I was talking to the girls and they said, "Mom, what you created for us are the things that we're doing now in our adult lives. It may not have seemed like it mattered, Mom, but it mattered."

They were little things. They weren't beautiful things. I gave my kids little prayer journals. They were, like, little spiral-bound notebooks that they would write their prayers in. And, you know, sometimes they'd be doing that, and then the next minute they'd be, like, wrestling on the floor, like, pulling each other's hair.

But we still just did it. We were just faithful to the process. We learned from each other. We learned from God. We prayed every single morning out loud, and that's something that anybody can do. And that's something I would encourage that young mom to do, that you were talking about that has a lot of kids, like, deciding, like, we are going to pray every day.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: We're going to pray out loud every day. I mean, these are the kinds of things that my message is aimed at helping people do. It's not like these big complicated jumping through hoop type of things, but simple things that really do matter way on down the road as well.

Jennifer Rothschild: I love it, Jennifer. Because you're not saying, okay, here's something new to implement, you're saying, you're doing some things, now let's make them purposeful.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: That's right.

Jennifer Rothschild: Or let's add this little bit of intention into this. And I think all of us can do that. It's just a matter of slowing down.

But one of the things you write about, that I thought was real interesting and I want you to unpack, is that Jesus actually had a morning ritual --

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- the Shema Prayer.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: I want you to tell us what that is. Can we apply that? Like, make that personal.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Yeah. Okay. So I went, of course, looking for Jesus' morning routine. And we know from the Gospels we could see him a couple times, like, waking up, quote, early in the morning to consult with the Father. We see that. So we know that. But there's nothing in the Bible that says explicitly this is the morning routine of Jesus.

However, we know that the Israelites were praying the Shema Prayer for centuries before Jesus was born. And as a devout Jew, Jesus would have heard the Shema every morning since he was a baby, he would have learned it when he was a kid. It would have been part of his own morning faith tradition as he got older, probably every single morning and evening as well.

We run into the words of the Shema Prayer both in Deuteronomy as well as in the Gospel of Mark. And in Mark, Jesus says it like this: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." So in Jesus' morning ritual of praying the Shema, he would have been every morning expressing his intention to love God with his whole being.

And I think his morning intention can become ours as well, even if it means, you know, posting Mark 12:30 on your bathroom mirror or by your coffee maker or your tea kettle and asking yourself every single morning, what does it look like today to love the Lord my God with all of my heart and my soul?

So maybe that means that you're going to have a 20-minute quiet time. Maybe that means as a family you're going to strengthen your hearts and love the Lord your God by memorizing a verse together as a family, praying out loud together as a family. Whatever it is, like, how are you going to love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul?

And then with your mind. What weighs your mind down as you wake up in the morning? How can you love God with your mind? How can you have the things that enter your mind be the things of God, the things of Christ, instead of the things on your phone? Setting aside the phone and letting God fill up those spaces in your mind first thing in the morning.

And then how do you love God with all of your strength? So I'm talking here now not just about our inner strength, but our outer strength. It is things like making sure that we're taking care of our bodies, making sure that the night before we're getting the sleep that we actually need so that we can have the morning that we actually want.

So that's going to look different depending on your season of life and what you have going on, but I think that's a really great place to start.

Jennifer Rothschild: Ooh, what a great framework. Yeah, I really appreciate that. And it makes -- you had already alluded to that too when you talked about taking care of your body and your heart. Yeah, that's -- I've never thought of applying the Shema that way, and I think that is a beautiful concept.

Okay. So, now, there's another concept, though, in your book that I want us to talk about because you introduce it in your book. It's this idea of morning archetypes. Okay, fascinating. You gotta unpack this. Tell us what you mean by morning archetypes.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Okay. So an archetype is just a fancy word for personality. I could have said personality.

Jennifer Rothschild: No, I like archetype. I feel so intelligent. Thank you.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: I know. It makes me really smart. That's the only place.

So here's the deal with the archetypes. When I started to put together the content for the book, I really wanted to have a one-size-fits-all tried and true method for mornings. Because there were books in the secular marketplace like that, like get up at a certain time and then do this set of things and then you're going to have a perfect morning.

Well, I interviewed hundreds of women for this book and it became clear really early on that that was not gonna work.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: We're all in different seasons of life and we all have different personalities. We all have different archetypes. I discovered in those interviews four major archetypes.

And they are the Daybreak Doer. This is the kind of person who is ready to hit the ground running right away in the morning. They feel, you know, most productive in those first hours of the day. They maybe want to get a couple little morning tasks done or mentally prepare for a work assignment. I find that Daybreak Doers do best when they can just get something done right away, set it aside, and then really lock in with God.

I've recommended to a lot of Daybreak Doers that they keep a distraction notepad beside them so that when their mind is already spinning toward what they want to get done for the day, they can just write it down on the distraction notepad so they can stay locked in on their meditative time with God.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay. Love it.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: So it's not to say you set aside God, but you invite him into your daybreak doing and you then are just acknowledging how God made you.

The second type is the Morning Mover. And this person really functions best if she can get moving as soon as possible. So this is you if you love to go for a morning walk or a jog or go, you know, to your high cardio workout. It gets your metabolism going, your mood going. I'm a Morning Mover. I love those mornings, because then when I come home after my exercise, I'm ready to dig into the Scriptures after having my coffee ritual. And those are my best mornings of all.

Then the third type is the Meditative Mind. This is the person who is really drawn to meditative prayer, study, devotional reading, journaling, all those kinds things immediately. It sets the foundation of calmness and gratitude. Some Meditative Minds do that before they even get out of bed. They've got, like, their journal and everything sitting right there on their bedside.

And then finally is the Social Seeker. This is a type that craves connection and interaction with other people right away. Gives them a sense of purpose. They just love to be around people. Children are often Social Seekers. And I think that's really important to recognize that child that comes bounding out of their bedroom having all these stories pent up inside of them that they just need to share. They maybe want to sit on your lap. They need hugs. When I interviewed women for this book, we came to know that a lot of widows were actually Social Seekers and didn't know it.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Their person was suddenly not there, and they'd built a lot of routine and ritual around shared interests with their spouse.

So knowing your archetype is helpful because what you want to do is begin your day with something you know will motivate you to wake up, and then you can build your morning ritual from there.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay. So I know as we were listening -- because I was doing the same -- we were all thinking, okay, yep, that's me. Okay. So once we find that, is your suggestion, then, that you go ahead and you press into that? So like you, because you're a Morning Mover, you're not going to try to be the Meditative Mind first thing in the morning because --

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Right.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- you know the way the Lord made you, so you're going to hit the ground first with some movement?

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Yes. So the only morning I get up that early -- I get up at 5:07, which is the last possible moment I can get up and make my 5:30 AM workout class in town. I live on a farm.

But the thing is, like, even when I'm moving, it is not something outside of or apart of God. I sense God's presence with me. I thank the Lord for the women that I get to meet with every morning during my class. I work a lot in isolation as an author, so I don't get to see people very much, and I just -- I praise God for those times together.

And it's not that it's outside of his realm. He's in it with me. But I think it's also important if you aren't a Meditative Mind, that you don't forget that that's really important to be intentional with prayer, journaling. It doesn't have to be hours long, but to make some time where you're really locked in with what God has going on.

Jennifer Rothschild: When you describe the four archetypes, I can see where we all lean into one of those, yet at the same time all of those are necessary for our wholeness.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Correct.

Jennifer Rothschild: So for that perhaps young mom who has a Social Seeker that bounds out of bed before the Pop-Tarts, and she's a Meditative Mind, both can be accomplished. Every season's different, like you already alluded to.

Wow, Jennifer. Okay. First of all, I love how you've crafted this, and I love the concept and I love the invitation. 4:13ers, that's what it really feels like to me, an invitation. And I don't know about you, Jennifer, and our listeners, but there are times when I just want kind of a rethink. And this to me feels like a rethink, like let's rethink this. Why just do the same ol', same ol' when perhaps we could rethink and filter in some new intentions into what we're doing. So well done. Thank you for writing this.

All right. But we're gonna get to our last question, my dear. Okay. So I'm thinking about the person who -- she can't help herself, Jennifer. She can't help herself. She is looking for the formula. She's like, okay, one more thing to do. Even though that's not what you've been discussing, she's already feeling bogged down by the demand she already has. So just give her one practice from your book, that she can begin to apply tomorrow, that'll just help her morning move from feeling so, like, full of dread to being full of hope.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: Yes. I'm going to give you one that actually originated with Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa told people that the first thing they should do every morning is to greet the Lord with the greeting, "Good morning, Jesus." And it has made such a difference for me.

Like, when the first thing out of my mouth and out of my mind is to greet my Savior -- I know that there's going to be things that come into any given day that I have that are going to be really difficult. But it is so invitational just to greet God and be aware of his presence, to take a moment to talk to him before we look at our phones, before we see what notifications are pinging, or to think about all the things that weigh us down as the day goes on. I think that's the very, very best place to start.

And if I may offer one more, Jennifer.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yes, please.

Jennifer Dukes Lee: To grant yourself the sleep that you need. I think that we wear lack of sleep like a badge of honor, and one of the reasons that we are not very pleased with mornings is because we are lacking the sleep that we need.

To set an alarm for yourself at night, just like you do in the morning, to say this is the end of the day, this is the end of the work, this is the end of, you know, my scrolling or Netflix or whatever. That I am going to get my me time by getting to sleep on time so that I can be ready tomorrow morning to receive the new mercies that he has just for me.

Jennifer Rothschild: All right, you heard it. The first thing to do is to just greet the Lord. "Good morning, Jesus." I mean, just greet God and be aware of his presence, because he's with you. So talk to him before you check out your phone.

KC Wright: And I'm so thankful, happy, glad she included that we need to grant ourselves sleep. Hello! Lack of sleep is not a badge of honor. So, our people, set your night alarm telling you to go to bed.

Jennifer Rothschild: Mm-hmm.

KC Wright: She has such a fresh perspective here. I really like her stuff.

Jennifer Rothschild: I know. Me too.

KC Wright: Good morning, Jesus!

So fill out that survey Jennifer mentioned so we can hear from you. Your voice truly matters. You can have a great morning. And you know why? You can do all things through Christ who gives you supernatural strength. I can.

Jennifer Rothschild: I can.

Jennifer and KC: And you can.

Jennifer Rothschild: What was that movie back in the '70s? Was it Good Morning, Vietnam?

KC Wright: Yeah, Good Morning --

Jennifer Rothschild: Can you do that?

KC Wright: Good morning, Jesus!

Jennifer Rothschild: There you go. Well done.