Thе аlаrm gоеѕ off. You hіt snooze once. Twісе. Thrее tіmеѕ.
And ѕuddеnlу уоu’rе a tоrnаdо іn раjаmаѕ, mоvіng through уоur house lіkе уоur lіfе dереndѕ on іt.
Thе coffee mаkеr’ѕ gurglіng, ѕоmеоnе’ѕ сrуіng аbоut mismatched ѕосkѕ, and уоu’rе dіggіng thrоugh the соuсh сuѕhіоnѕ looking for thаt permission ѕlір thаt wаѕ duе уеѕtеrdау.
Cоffее ѕріllіng асrоѕѕ thе соuntеr whіlе you’re trying tо buttеr tоаѕt wіth оnе hаnd and pack lunсhеѕ wіth the оthеr.
Kids сrуіng because breakfast dоеѕn’t taste rіght or thеіr fаvоrіtе shirt is іn thе dіrtу hаmреr.
Thаt quiet time with Gоd уоu рrоmіѕеd yourself last Sundау nіght?
Yeah, thаt gоt buried undеr thе сhаоѕ ѕоmеwhеrе аrоund 6:47 AM when you realized nоbоdу hаd сlеаn underwear аnd thе dоg nееdеd tо go оut.
I was the queen of morning disasters. I’d wake up already behind, already stressed, already defeated before my feet hit the floor.
My morning routine looked like a game show where the contestant has thirty seconds to complete impossible tasks while circus music plays in the background. And I always lost.
But here’s what I didn’t realize back then. I was treating my mornings like a race I had to win instead of moments I could actually live.
Every single day started with me sprinting toward some invisible finish line, and I wondered why I felt breathless before breakfast was over.
The frantic energy I started with became the soundtrack for my entire day.
If I began stressed, I stayed stressed. If I began rushed, I stayed rushed.
If I began feeling behind, well, I never caught up. And by evening, I wondered why I felt like I was always running on fumes, always trying to catch my breath.
Scientists actually study this stuff. How we begin our morning literally rewires our brain’s stress response for the next twelve hours.
Our brains are like sponges first thing in the morning, soaking up whatever emotional tone we set, and then that becomes the default setting for everything that follows.
I used to think devotions were just another item on my to-do list. You know, something to squeeze in if I had leftover time.
Right after I folded the laundry, answered emails, meal planned for the week, and maybe organized that junk drawer that’s been haunting me since 2019.
But leftover time?
When you’re a mom, leftover time is like finding a unicorn in your laundry basket. It doesn’t exist.
And even if it did, who wants to meet with God when you’re already exhausted and running on whatever emotional fumes you have left?
I kept waiting for the perfect morning.
You know the one – where I’d wake up naturally refreshed at 5 AM, slip quietly to my perfectly organized Bible study corner, and have this serene, Instagram-worthy quiet time with my perfectly steamed coffee and my color-coded devotional journal.
That morning never came.
Because real life doesn’t work that way.
Real life involves alarm clocks that don’t go off, kids who wake up grumpy, and coffee makers that choose the worst possible moment to break down.
Here’s the thing, though.
What if those quiet moments weren’t about finding extra time but about changing the entire rhythm of our day?
What if they weren’t another task to complete but the foundation that made everything else possible?
It’s like the difference between trying to build a house on quicksand versus building it on solid ground.
When your day starts with panic, everything else feels unstable.
When your day starts with peace, you have something solid to stand on when life gets shaky.
And that’s when it hit me.
What if I stopped trying to fit God into my schedule and started building my schedule around Him?
What if, instead of hoping to find time for Him after everything else was handled, I gave Him the first and best part of my day?
It sounded impossible. How could I get up even earlier when I was already exhausted? How could I add one more thing to my morning when I was already drowning?
But I tried it anyway. Just once.
I set my alarm fifteen minutes earlier, stumbled to the kitchen, and opened my Bible while the coffee was brewing.
No fancy setup.
No perfect quiet space.
Just me, barely awake, reading God’s word while the rest of the house slept.
And you know what happened? Nothing dramatic. No angels singing. No life-changing revelation. Just a few minutes of quiet in a house that would soon be chaos.
But something was different. When the kids woke up grumpy, I didn’t immediately match their energy.
When the morning disasters started happening – and they did happen – I found myself pausing instead of panicking.
Those few minutes with God had created this tiny buffer between what happened to me and how I reacted to it.
When I finally stopped trying to fit God into my schedule and started building my schedule around Him, everything shifted.
And I mean everything.
From how I handled the morning meltdowns to how my shoulders felt when I climbed into bed at night.
The house was still chaotic. But I wasn’t the same woman trying to handle it all.
I had met with God before I met with anyone else, and that changed how I met with everyone else.
That’s actually why I ended up writing my book, “30 Devotions Journal for Busy Women.”
I realized there were probably a lot of other moms out there running on fumes, trying to squeeze God into the leftover spaces of their lives, wondering why they felt so empty and exhausted all the time.
The change wasn’t instant.
I didn’t wake up one morning and suddenly become a Zen mom who floated through her days with perfect peace and endless patience.
But slowly, day by day, something fundamental shifted in how I approached everything.
When you start your day connected to God, anchored in His love, reminded of His promises, it creates this buffer between you and the chaos.
The chaos is still there – kids still spill things, schedules still get crazy, unexpected problems still pop up. But you’re not facing it alone anymore.
You’re not trying to be strong enough or patient enough or organized enough in your own power.
Instead of beginning each day already behind, already overwhelmed, I started by being reminded that God goes before me. He knows what’s coming.
He’s already prepared a way through whatever the day might bring. That changes everything about how you face the unknown hours ahead.
The mornings when I skipped my quiet time, I could feel the difference immediately. I was back to that reactive, frazzled version of myself, snapping at everyone and feeling like life was happening to me instead of me living it intentionally.
But the mornings when I took those few minutes to center myself in God’s presence first, everything else seemed to fall into place more naturally.
It’s not about having perfect quiet times or checking off some spiritual requirement.
It’s about starting your day connected to the source of all strength, all peace, all wisdom. It’s about remembering who you are and whose you are before the world starts telling you who you need to be.
And when you change the way you begin, you change the way you live.
Those fifteen minutes became the best part of my day. Not because they were perfect, but because they were first.
And if you want some help getting started, I’d love for you to check out my devotional journal. It’s designed specifically for women who feel like they don’t have time but know they need this.
God isn’t waiting for you to get your act together first – He’s waiting right now, ready to meet you exactly where you are.