Your Kids' Morning Routine: 4 Easy Ways to Add Some Jesus

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morning routine

So I don’t know what your kids’ morning routine is like at your house.

Maybe you picture me lovingly folding lunchbox notes and sandwiches built from the sprouts on my windowsill, sitting down to a full breakfast with devotional book in hand.

In reality, exactly half of my kids are still in the I’ll-wake-up-exactly-eleven-minutes-before-I-leave phase.

Which means I’m flipping some eggs over medium, commanding my youngest to breathe in my face (“Did you actually brush your teeth? Ugh. Back upstairs”), and making sure the right kids are medicated before they go out the door. (No ADHD meds = bad things.)

And sometimes I’m doing them with, imagine this, grumpy, drowsy teens and a tween.

So rather than some rosy glow of spirituality, we are dealing with a puffy aura of, y’know, bedhead. So move over, Pinterest-morning-Mom. Reality triumphs again.

But it’s easier than you thought to welcome God into your insanity.

4 Zero-Prep Ways to Work Jesus into Your Kids’ Morning Routine–That You Can Start This Monday

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, suggests “habit stacking” as a way to build better habits into your current routine. That is, add your new habit onto an existing habit.

We’ve all got these–brushing our teeth, making the bed, eating breakfast. So think: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”

What could this look like?

Pray when they get up.

I pray with my arm over my youngest, who’s 12, while he’s snuggled under the covers as I’m getting him up in the morning.

I love starting our day with thanks, and just asking God that my son would walk with the Holy Spirit.

Pray when they go out the door.

I don’t have those intimate moments waking up my three older teens in the morning, but they all leave together. So when they’re munching on breakfast, I take a minute to pray out loud for them, sometimes asking for requests beforehand.

Read a short Scripture.

While kids are stuffing their backpacks or sipping a cup of coffee (which feels as important as prayer to my son, I’d guess)–sometimes I read a few verses.

I’m usually not giving a commentary; see above description of my actual life. But God has a great way of speaking for himself.

Hint: I don’t do this if they’re angry. I don’t want my kids associating the Bible with a have-to or with frustration. I want this to be a rich, life-giving moment.

Brainstorm.

Though I don’t do it every day of my kids’ morning routine, sometimes as we’re milling around the kitchen, I (gently! Breezily!) ask my kids

if there’s someone they’ve spotted that’s struggling socially, or could use a friend or some encouragement.
if there’s a teacher they could thank for something.
if there’s drama at school, what one small step they could take to manage conflict in a godly way.

See? Even if your mornings resemble a Brawny commercial than a Folgers commercial–you’ve got this.

I’d love to hear: What steps do you take in your kids’ morning routine to help point your kids to Jesus?

Comment below.