S2. E8. Morning & Evening Routines
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[00:00:00] I think all of us should aspire to enter our day feeling tethered to the Lord, connected to the vine because we know in John 15, Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing. So if you are not doing things in the morning that get you reconnected with the vine, you are not thriving. You are probably not even surviving.
You are dying on the vine, off the vine. Disconnected from your power source. .
Welcome to Your Daily Bread podcast. I'm your host, Abbie Stasior, a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor. My prayer is that these bite-sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food and improve body image, as well as help you grow closer to God. Now, I can't personally heal you, but each week I'll be directing you to the one that can, and that is Jesus. As a disclaimer, I'm not a pastor, but a sister in Christ providing you with some food for thought for you to bring to the Lord and into your quiet time as your daily bread. [00:01:00] Let's dig in.
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to Your Daily Bread podcast. I hope everyone had an amazing Easter, an amazing Resurrection Sunday, and. Holy Week, if you missed it on my social media, I did have a free Holy Week devotional to kickstart healing your relationship with food, and I think that Holy Week devotional is so helpful to remind everyone of what.
Jesus's resurrection means for us in terms of our relationship with food. So I will link that again in the show notes for you to download it because I do think that, even after Holy Week, it will still be effective for you. Now those scriptures will still ring true and speak life into you and help you keep healing your relationship with food.
And y'all please pray for me. I am so sick right now and, , I will be completely honest with y'all. It [00:02:00] has been very difficult to record these last couple weeks. I have found that there's been a lot of spiritual warfare surrounding the show and, I've been in business counseling people for.
The last seven years, but it's really only been the last year, year and a half that I have fully converted my business to be your Dearly Bread Co. And to be a fully faith-based. Business. And ever since then I have been having a lot of issues with my throat and my voice and been getting sick a lot. I think right now it's just a general cold and allergies change of the seasons.
And Easter, I'm on the greeting team, you know, shaking everyone's hands and things like that, just very exposed. So I think it's just that now, but I do believe that there is a lot of spiritual warfare and the enemy is trying to attack my voice. So if y'all could be praying, I know that there are so many prayer warriors, all of y'all that listen to the show, so I [00:03:00] appreciate , you looping me into your prayer time and, praying over the show.
I was talking with a couple women out on the plaza of. My church that, , I had just met them this Easter weekend and they listened to the show and they love it and, it was just so great to be meeting so many listeners in person. So thank you so much for supporting the show.
Thank you for leaving a review. You can even take a screenshot, put it on your Instagram story, let me know which episodes stuck out to you. All those things really do help the show grow and I do appreciate your prayers. And just to, help with my throat and my voice and to rebuke any attacks from the enemy because we know.
That no weapon formed against us will prosper in Jesus name. This is an episode that I've been wanting to do for a really long time, and it just felt right to, do it this week after Easter, because it's spring, there's a fresh wind. Jesus has resurrected. It is a great time for spring cleaning and [00:04:00] to tidy up our routines and to become a little bit more.
Disciplined, a little bit more intentional, especially when it comes to our morning and evening routine. So we are gonna be diving into Genesis. Father, God, thank you so much for an amazing, incredible holy week. Lord, we just praise you and thank you for your great sacrifice. Lord, help us to not rush past that, to not forget, just because Holy Week is over, your resurrection is still good.
You are still good. You are still setting the captives free. You are breaking chains. Lord, you are healing. We are just so grateful. Help us to not rush past what Easter truly means.
Lord, I'm just calling on your Holy Spirit to seal it in our hearts, Lord. And Lord, I pray over anyone who is sick right now and needs healing. We are calling on you Lord [00:05:00] Jehovah Rafa, our great healer and our great physician. Lord, thank you for doing a healing work in all of our bodies. From the top of our head to the tips of our toes
I pray that as we go into this episode, that, Lord, it's not what I want to say, but it is what you want to say to your people through me. Lord, thank you for using me as a vessel and help me to just get outta the way and let you fully lead this. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's dive into Genesis chapter one, verses three through five.
God said, let there be light. And there was light. God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness He called night and there was the evening and there was the morning the first day. One thing that was pointed out to me. With [00:06:00] reading the scripture recently is that in that section, the Lord lists the evening first.
The emphasis is on the evening, and when I was talking about the scripture with my spiritual director, my pastor's mom. We were talking about rest and how God rested on the seventh day and God didn't need to rest. And we've done other episodes on that and trying to strike that right balance of working and resting and getting out of hustle culture and that cycle of striving, which is so hard to do and I'm constantly fighting against that myself.
And she was like, the Lord really revealed to me that in Genesis it says, and there was evening, and there was morning.
The first day the emphasis. Is on the evening and
so many people get frustrated that they're continuing to snooze, snooze, snooze, and they can't get up in the morning, and it's so hard to [00:07:00] get up in the morning. It's not a morning routine issue. It is an evening routine issue, and if you are setting yourself up for success, for good quality and quantity sleep, it will be so much easier to wake up in the morning and have a pleasant morning.
So if you really want to optimize your mornings, then we have to start in the evening, and it is so cool to see that in scripture. So if you are wanting to have solid morning and evening routines, I want you to start to think about and journal on how do you want to feel walking into your first commitment of the day.
Let's start there. Do you wanna feel energized? Do you wanna feel at peace? Maybe go through the fruits of the spirit. Go back to our, fruit test episode where we talk about the various fruits of the spirit. Do you wanna be patient? Do you wanna be peaceful? Do you wanna be joyful? Do you wanna feel loved in your heart?
Do you wanna feel prepared, energized, [00:08:00] inspired, calm, collected? How do you want to feel walking into your first commitment of the day? I want you to back it up and think about, okay, what could I tangibly do in the morning? A few things. One or two things that you could easily do in the morning that would generate those feelings.
So if you wanna feel empowered, maybe listening to some worship music and getting in the word or listening to a sermon could be helpful. If you wanna feel calm, maybe it's meditating on a Psalm or doing a devotional and going on a walk would have you feel. Calm, cool. Collected and at peace and tethered to the Lord.
I think all of us should aspire to enter our day feeling tethered to the Lord, connected to the vine because we know in John 15, Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing. So if you are not doing things in the morning that get you reconnected with the vine, you are not thriving. You are [00:09:00] probably not even surviving.
You are dying on the vine, off the vine. Disconnected from your power source. So we need to be constantly recharging and how consistent are we with recharging our phones and how inconsistent are we with recharging ourselves and reconnecting ourselves with the Lord, because that's where we really recharge.
True rest comes from resting in him, so what do I need to do in the morning? What makes me feel most connected to the Lord? What makes me feel ready for the day?
What helps me generate those fruits of the spirit? It doesn't have to look like a CVS receipt Long list. This is not a box that you just check off. These are just a few intentional things that you could do to generate those feelings and.
This may change depending on where you're at in your menstrual cycle, depending on your energy levels that day. And so have a whole list of different things that you could do, and I find it helpful in my morning routine to have a [00:10:00] block of time from six to 7:00 AM That's when I have my quiet time. And so I have that container and I'm consistent with that, but in that time, I change it up and I vary what I do in my quiet time based on what my soul needs.
But I get myself set up the night before. So you have your couple things. Now I want you to be thinking, okay, ideally I wanna go work out in the morning, maybe get a walk-in, or go to a class or go to the gym and get in my quiet time. Okay, great. So maybe those are your two things. For example, then we have to really put the emphasis on the evening routine and start there.
There's two parts to the evening routine. First the tangibles, second the wind down period. So first with the tangibles, you wanna be thinking, okay, what do I need to do in the evening to best prepare myself for the morning? You're setting yourself up for success.
Maybe you pack your lunch the next day for work, or pack your snacks, prep breakfast, pick your [00:11:00] outfits for the next day. Workout, clothes, work clothes, all the things. Make any decisions that you have to make. Like if you know you're gonna go on a walk and you really wanna listen to a sermon already, pick the sermon that you're teed up on the cube.
So it's already ready to go. Make any decisions that you can. I even go as far as, okay, how am I gonna do my hair tomorrow? Like, do I need to wash my hair now? What am I gonna do? Then you need to wind down and transition into that. So this is the second part of your evening routine. I think going from cleaning up the house, doing everything for the next day, those tangibles, and then transitioning into the wind down part of your routine, that is a good time and opportunity to unplug from your phone.
If you are on your phone when you go to sleep, if you're watching TV before bed, if you're falling asleep listening to something that's not white noise, it really is detrimental to your sleep.
So we really wanna be unplugging, ideally about an hour before bed. This is a time to
do your [00:12:00] hygiene thing. Spend time with God. Spend time with a partner. Talk, read, stretch, meditate on scripture. Have a cup of tea, do things that would actually be replenishing for you and set you up for good quality, quantity, sleep, so you have that last hour of the day.
Unplugged too, truly wind down
And some clients have also found it helpful. To set a timer for 30 minutes before they want to start to wind down. It's kind of a, okay, 30 minute warning. Let's finish up this Netflix episode. Let's finish eating.
Whatever you want to do in the evening, you have a 30 minute warning so that when it's really time to start winding down and get your evening routine started. You have already had 30 minutes to wrap things up
I always recommend that clients. Draft out their morning and evening routines and actually write it down and think about what is the footwork, what is the choreography? So you're not going up and downstairs a million times all over your house. Have it [00:13:00] flow naturally, 'cause you want it to make sense. You want there to be an ease about these routines.
You don't have to be married to anything. It can always change, but start with something. Go from there and I find it helpful to, to list things out and also put the emphasis on the evening start there because if you prepare for the morning, you will be much more successful.
And if you know that you need support in this area I urge you to click the link in the show notes and book a free. 20 minute call with me that will kickstart your journey to finding food freedom in Christ.
So on that call, i'll give you some initial tips. I'll give you some scriptures that speak into your specific situation so you can trial what a faith-based approach to nutrition looks like. And I'll get a chance to pray for you and that will really jumpstart your journey.
And that call is totally free. Because Jesus paid it all.
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