This week, we’d like to share with you a two-part series  written by Soren, focusing on the two critical hinges of the day: the very first minutes upon waking, and the last minutes before falling asleep. Our renewed stewardship of these “hinges”—in small, practical ways—can bring countless benefits to our families. 

How to Wake Up 
 (To hear part 1 of this reflection read by Soren, click here.)

We’ve all seen plenty of intriguing articles like “9 Billionaires’ Morning Routines” or “The 5 Best Morning Routines of Productive People.” And as we cast about for life hacks and quick fixes, we can’t help but wonder if somewhere in our humdrum mornings lies the secret ingredient — to getting ahead, to success, to happiness.

To help in the quest, there’s a whole cottage industry of podcasts on morning rituals. One such podcast promises “effective morning routine tips and chats with entrepreneurs and thought leaders in their appropriate fields on how their healthy morning habits have contributed to their success.” On the bulletin board in my home office, I’ve even got a newspaper clip entitled “The Quiet Joys of the Very, Very Early Morning Club.”

Maybe some of my own fascination with mornings goes back to my evangelical Protestant upbringing. In my Christian grammar school and then my high school youth group, I always had to be ready for questions from peers, teachers or youth pastors that went something like this: “What has God been teaching you in your morning devotions? How have your quiet times been recently? Which part of God’s Word are you studying now?”

The questions sometimes grated on me, but the assumption was clear: If you’re not beginning your day in the Word and in prayer, you’re not only missing something big; in fact, you don’t even know how to wake up as a Christian…. [Read the rest of the column at The Arlington Catholic Herald here.] 

How to Fall Asleep 

 (To hear part 2 of this reflection read by Soren, click here.)

A number of years ago, my youngest brother — on R&R from a U.S. Agency for International Development assignment in Fallujah, Iraq, during some of the worst violence — sleep-walked out a window. He fractured his jaw, broke both wrists and easily could have died. His relationship with sleep was upended. 

Most of us, thankfully, do not drift off to sleep wondering if a neural misfire might lead us to a life-threatening accident. But at the end of the day, we all have to get ready for how we spend one-third — or about 26-33 years — of our lives: sleeping. 

For the vast majority of us, the way we spend the minutes before lights-out can probably be described as whimsical or inconsistent. It’d be a stretch to say that we are purposeful or intentional. We’d be hard-pressed to articulate a “why,” a framework for the tail-end of our day… [Read the rest of the column at The Arlington Catholic Herald here.]