# You're a Morning Person (Yes, You): Reframing the Start of Your Day | Jennifer Dukes Lee (Bonus Episode)

An episode of [Minimalist Moms Podcast | Purposeful Life & Parenting Tips](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1159498258), 2 Apr 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://prefix.up.audio/s/pdst.fm/e/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/clrtpod.com/m/mgln.ai/e/35/audio2.redcircle.com/episodes/fca4e714-c068-4c3f-9a49-5fe74e1751e9/stream.mp3

In this episode, Diane sits down with bestselling author Jennifer Dukes Lee to talk about her new book, How to Love Your Morning, and why renewal doesn’t have to begin with a rigid 5 a.m. routine. Jennifer shares how grief after her father’s passing reshaped her relationship with mornings - turning dread into a gentle invitation to hope.Together, they explore why she prefers the word ritual over routine, how to identify your unique morning archetype, and how to create a personalized, faith-filled rhythm that engages your body, mind, and soul. This conversation is an invitation to begin your day not proving your discipline, but remembering God’s faithfulness - because His mercies truly are new every morning. Links Discussed in This Episode | • Checkout the podcast storefront for recommendations from Diane. • Jennifer's Resource: Weighted Vest + Treadmill Desk • Connect with Jennifer: • Website • Instagram • Facebook • Free Morning Resources • Book: How to Love Your Morning: Faith-Filled Habits to Build a Life of Joy and Purpose One Day at a Time About Jennifer | Jennifer Dukes Lee is a bestselling author, speaker, and morning evangelist from Iowa. She is the author of several books, including Growing Slow, It’s All Under Control, and Stuff I’d Only Tell God. She wants to live her life in such a way thatyou can’t help but want more of Jesus. Episode Sponsors | The Minimalist Moms Podcast would not be possible without the support of weekly sponsors. Choosing brands that I believe in is important to me. I only want to recommend brands that I believe may help you in your daily life. As always, never feel pressured into buying anything. Remember: if you don't need it, it's not a good deal! Enjoy the Podcast? Post a review and share it! If you enjoyed tuning into this podcast, then do not hesitate to write a review. You can also share this with your fellow mothers so that they can be inspired to think more and do with less. Order (or review) my book, Minimalist Moms: Living & Parenting With Simplicity. You can contact me through my website, find me on Instagram, Pinterest or like The Minimalist Moms Page on Facebook. Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out Cure Hydration and use my code MINIMALIST for a great deal: https://www.curehydration.com * Check out DeleteMe and use my code joindeleteme.com/MINIMALIST for a great deal: https://joindeleteme.com * Check out Wayfair: https://www.wayfair.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

## Transcript

[0:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: For those of you that are new around here, I release bonus episodes that serve a niche part of my audience.
[0:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This episode is coming from a Christian perspective, so if that's not something you're interested in, check out one of the other episodes that dropped this week or joining back to your next week for episodes that you don't wanna miss.
[0:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So Jesus' morning ritual would have been daily expressing his intention to love God with his whole being, and I think that's so beautiful because our morning intention could be that way.
[0:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We can love God with our whole being.
[0:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And maybe that's one thing that a man that just feels really stressed out for time and feels really chaotic.
[0:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Couldn't even do is just like print out those words and put them somewhere she's going to see them at the start of the day.
[0:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And just say, this is what I'm going to do.
[0:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'm going to love God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength and think about the way that that looks and it doesn't mean that it has to be, you know, jumping through a hundred hoops.
[0:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It doesn't have to be performative.
[0:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It doesn't have to be pretty.
[1:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It can just be regular and ordinary, right where you are.
[1:04] \[SPEAKER_01\]: This is Diane Bowden, and you're listening to the minimalist mom's podcast.
[1:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In today's episode, I sit down with best-selling author, Jennifer Duke's lead, to talk about her new book, How To Love Your Morning.
[1:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And why renewal doesn't have to begin with a rigid 5am routine.
[1:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Jennifer shares how grief after her father's passing reshaped her relationship with mornings, turning dread into a gentle invitation to hope.
[1:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And after studying more than 200 references to morning and scripture, she discovered a powerful theme.
[1:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: God has a soft spot for the start of the day.
[1:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Together we explore why she prefers the word ritual over routine, how to identify your unique morning archetype, and how to create a personalized faith filled rhythm that engages your body, mind and soul.
[1:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: This conversation is an invitation to begin your day, not proving your discipline, but remembering God's faithfulness, because his mercies truly are new every morning.
[1:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But quickly before we get into the episode, if you have yet to leave a radiant review for the minimalist bomb's podcast, but have been listening for a long time, I asked you to pause the episode, hit five stars, let me know your favorite guest, how the podcast has been impactful to you.
[2:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We are getting so close to a thousand reviews for the show, and I loved to hit that number before the end of the year.
[2:17] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So if you have been listening for a long time, but have yet to do that, it would mean so much to me.
[2:22] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So thank you, thank you.
[2:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And with that, let's get into this conversation
[2:30] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Well, Jennifer, it's so great to have you here today.
[2:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'm really excited to dive into your book.
[2:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: How to love your morning?
[2:35] \[SPEAKER_01\]: This is something I would say has been easier.
[2:39] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I guess I should say at the morning routine has been easier to not necessarily master, but to make a priority ever so quick.
[2:46] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's our little bit older.
[2:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So I can't wait to hear more from you and how to make this more of a ritual in our lives.
[2:51] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Quickly before we get there, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to the listeners?
[2:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'm Jennifer Duke-Slee.
[2:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'm an author and a speaker.
[2:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I am an empty nester now.
[2:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So my children have flown the nest.
[3:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They're even now out of college.
[3:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One is a full-time missionary in Indonesia.
[3:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And the other is studying her for her master's at Yale Divinity School.
[3:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We live on a farm.
[3:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And we live in a county where pigs outnumber people by a significant margin.
[3:18] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Wow, okay.
[3:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That's really cool.
[3:21] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Wait, what, what, Cedar, you and I know what.
[3:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Oh, and I know, okay, as I said, we're going to be talking about the morning routine and the morning time and how God has met you there in the season of life.
[3:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Before we get into your personal story, I'd love to share as I was reading through your book.
[3:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You had said that you had found over 200 mornings in the Bible and discovered something that blew your mind.
[3:42] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'll have you state that here for the listeners to be getting.
[3:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, so when I had determined to write this book on mornings, which wasn't my idea by the way, it was my daughter's idea.
[3:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We can get to that because it's all about moming that when when I started in on what it looks like to have a good morning, I'm like, you know, as a Christian author, I probably should see what the Bible has to say about it.
[4:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Turns out there are indeed over 200 mornings mentioned in scripture.
[4:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Some of them are little mornings where like really major events take place.
[4:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Some of the most major events in biblical history take place in the backdrop of the morning.
[4:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But I also there's these metaphorical mornings and you may have heard verses like, you know, weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning or his mercies are new every morning.
[4:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This idea that good things start as the sunrise is that God brings hope and joy in peace at the start of each new day.
[4:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So the thing that I discovered that kind of blew my mind is that
[4:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: God has a soft spot for mornings, like God is a morning person, the original morning person and because we were made in his image, that means that we are too, like it is not matter what time we wake up, we're actually morning people.
[5:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, well, for sure it is because God is a morning person.
[5:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And when we recognize that we carry his...
[5:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: himself with the as the Holy Spirit inside of us, then we too are morning people.
[5:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And you just kind of knuck over over history and culture.
[5:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And there's this kind of idea of everything will be better in the morning.
[5:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Right.
[5:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I mean, we've heard that over and over, it's more than a comforting phrase.
[5:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's like this timeless truth.
[5:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And it's
[5:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: has it's it's across cultures it's across literature it's across oral traditions there's just something really magnificent about a morning and its insistence on rising up over all of us and so I really am trying to point out to people that even if you're an early bird yeah you might say I'm a morning person but if you're a night owl you are still a morning person because you were
[6:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Come into a day, say, well, I'm a non-morning person, then we're already kind of setting ourself up for defeat, like this day isn't going to be any good, but when you begin to believe that you're a morning person, it really matters because you're not just claiming a label.
[6:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You are setting the trajectory for how you are going to live the rest of the day.
[6:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's a way of just stepping into the rhythm of creation and aligning your life to good things.
[6:36] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So it's just kind of a state of mind and it could really reframe things for how you can start your day with intentionality.
[6:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yes, absolutely.
[6:44] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I also love how you call it a ritual instead of a routine.
[6:48] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And we can get into the discipline side of maybe why we don't need to be so disciplined.
[6:52] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But yeah, let's talk about how it can be a ritual on our day.
[6:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, you know, I think that we've all heard of routines.
[6:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We've seen them there, like billions of times on TikTok and Instagram, and a routine looks a certain way, and it also seems like really inaccessible to most of us because like, am I'm learning routines, Diane?
[7:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They are not going to be on anybody's Pinterest mode board.
[7:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Like, I do not bounce out of bed like a Disney princess.
[7:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: My hair is like sticking up in seven different directions, and I'm pretty sure that God doesn't want to talk to me until I've had my morning coffee.
[7:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So when I started to think about mornings as rituals, it automatically leveled the whole thing up.
[7:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That it didn't involve like how it looks or what the aesthetic is.
[7:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It brought to mind something meaningful, something sacred.
[7:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: When I think about routines, they feel very performative.
[7:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They feel very routine and I am not motivated by things that feel routine, but I am motivated to wake up to something that feels sacred, a ritual that draws me into hope and joy to something bigger than myself.
[8:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Like, I will even say Diane, when I make my coffee at my Braville espresso machine which I love,
[8:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: When that coffee is that espresso shot is beginning to pour through, and it takes a long time, I'm like, this is my coffee ritual.
[8:21] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And it automatically takes just something ordinary, and levels the whole thing up.
[8:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It doesn't, again, look prettier, it's programmable, but away of speaking into the universe and over my life that these things matter, these little small actions of my
[8:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, I also have the Breville espresso because she didn't make my mornings lovely each day and yeah I think that looking to the small rituals they are a little mercy they are a little bits of joy and I don't know I definitely cling to those things when I'm feeling overwhelmed stressed out sad it's I really do I know it's something as simple as getting up in the morning and having that moment and that time.
[9:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Obviously, you're going to share a little bit more about how we can elevate that, but I'd love to go back to your story.
[9:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You mentioned that your daughter had mentioned mornings, but also you found significance in a morning ritual while grieving your father.
[9:17] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'd love to hear a little bit more about that if you're willing to share.
[9:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, so my dad passed away a few years ago from congestive heart failure and he was placed on hospice for many months as his typical for people with heart disease and during that time mom and dad really wanted dad to stay at home so that meant that us kids became not only dad's kids but we became you know his caregiver.
[9:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We spent a lot of time over there and right away in the morning there were things that we had to do.
[9:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There were social workers coming.
[9:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There were nurses.
[9:49] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He needed his men and his bodily cares and food and meanwhile I'm helping my elderly mother through various things.
[9:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And, um,
[9:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It was hard, I mean, it was full of grease and, you know, pre-graving the loss of my father.
[10:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And when I would come home, I was way behind on everything here because I was away from the kids.
[10:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I was away from the home.
[10:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But I landed a really important lesson during those months.
[10:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And that is that I need my morning ritual, not only on my best days, but especially on my hardest days.
[10:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Because you and I both know that when you have habits in place or rituals in place, they offer like a predictability, they offer a stability.
[10:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And I've had to wake up with a smile on my face, but to my own well-being and for the well-being of people that I'm helping take care of, I need to wake up with some kind of hope at some kind of ritual.
[10:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Mm-hmm.
[10:50] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, absolutely.
[10:51] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I think that's so true and yet kind of something that I spoke to at the beginning was how I'm feeling as though I can enjoy my mornings a little bit better.
[11:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I don't have newborns that are keeping me up in the middle of the night to where I'm just dragging myself out of bed.
[11:05] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But why would you suggest that it's worth making priority?
[11:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, so I just want to say like during those hard times, first of all, things don't have to be like drawn out.
[11:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Let's say you do have what's called a quiet time, or you're reading the Bible or you're meditating or something like that.
[11:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You can like kind of shrink things down if things are chaotic in your life.
[11:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Like that's okay.
[11:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Just make it smaller, but for me,
[11:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I had to have those things in place because it was a way of reminding me that each day with dad was a gift.
[11:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It was a way of taking care of my body, which is a huge part of a morning routine.
[11:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So I made sure that I ate right.
[11:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I made sure that I hydrated.
[11:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I made sure that I was doing something to bring peace and joy in my day.
[11:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And so for me that meant
[11:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Some kind of a quiet time, but it was actually pretty short.
[11:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Let's be honest, you know, I might have been like listening to worship music while I'm blotering my hair or curling my hair, it might have been like making sure that I'm listening to a little snippet of a podcast while I go for a walk like taking care of body mind and soul.
[12:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's so important because when we're in those difficult situations and a lot of women are in caregiver roles, sometimes both parents and children at the same time, like we tend to put ourselves on the back burner, and when you have a ritual in place, you've got the blocks.
[12:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You can just shorten them up.
[12:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You can just shrink them up, but if you have like these pieces in place, you're just going to start your day with predictability and stability.
[12:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I love to get into the concept that you discuss in your book, the idea of morning archetypes.
[12:45] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Can you share a little bit more about that?
[12:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So when I began to write this book, I will say that I wanted to have like kind of a try to choose one size fits all morning ritual for everybody, you know, like everybody needs to get up at 5 a.m. and everybody needs to do these things, but
[13:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Then it was like, that's impossible.
[13:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Like we're all at different life stages.
[13:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Mind mornings, we're asking different things of me when I was a college student, then they did what I was a stay-at-home mom, or then they did what now I'm an empty nester with a busy job.
[13:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And what I learned is that,
[13:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We all need some reason for wanting to get up in order to get up, like something that motivates us, regardless of what our ages.
[13:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So that's where these archetypes came in.
[13:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's a set of personality characteristics and traits, and so there are four of them.
[13:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And the first one is a daybreak duer, and so as a daybreak duer, you're
[13:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: really motivated by you know what's ahead like what you want to accomplish in that day and maybe it's like taking the time to review your to do list or mentally preparing for a work assignment like that's okay you know you can actually do that first you don't have to go light a candle and you know spend an hour in prayer meditation you can actually get a few things done I mean I hope that we can all do those kind of grounding spiritual practices at some point in the in the morning but it's okay to just like
[14:13] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Get hit the ground running if you need to.
[14:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Then there are the morning movers and these type of people are going to really function best if they could get the body moving it kick starts metabolism and mood I am a morning mover I don't like getting up as early as I have to for the particular fitness class that I do but because I am motivated to want to do that it does get me out of bed.
[14:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: then there's a meditative mind so a lot of people will think oh this was the superior one because it's the person that lads their quiet time but it's not true I mean that's great to start your day with meditative practices but it's not necessarily superior none of these are better than the other.
[14:52] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And then finally, there's a social seeker, and this is a person who craved social interaction at the very front end of the day.
[14:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They need to connect.
[15:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They need to tell stories that they've had pent up in their brain for an intolerable number of hours.
[15:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: My dad was that way.
[15:08] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He just wanted to grab right away in the morning.
[15:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I had one white daughter's was very much a social seeker.
[15:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So I had to really pay attention to what her
[15:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: type was like she wanted hugs, she wanted to tell stories, she wanted to have physical touch those kinds of things.
[15:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So when you know what your archetype is, it really helps you as you begin to think through your own morning ritual.
[15:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: When you incorporate activities common to your archetype, then you can begin the day with the thing you know will motivate you to wake up and then you can
[15:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yes, absolutely.
[15:44] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I love also towards the end of your book.
[15:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You have sample routines for one then within every season, you even have one for college students, but that's really helpful and practical to look through and say, hey, it's already laid out here for me.
[15:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I mean, I just feel like this book,
[16:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: you packed a lot in here that is I think what a lot of moms are looking for these practical tangible things it's already laid out for us we don't have to put a lot of extra thoughts like boom we can go to this but also you have people see back just tips that you woven in as well for the working moms than empty nesters retirees this is just so so good.
[16:22] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You said your archetype is the moving mind.
[16:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One thing over, yeah.
[16:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, I mean, I kind of wanted to be the meditative fine.
[16:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Because I'm like, well, that's the one that surely God must slept.
[16:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You know, like God isn't moving over, too.
[16:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: God is on the move.
[16:36] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I think about how Jesus was moving all over the place, walking all over the place.
[16:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So, whatever your type is, like, lead into them and get your day started in that way.
[16:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Like, Diane, when you heard those four was their one that you're like, oh, that's me.
[16:50] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I mean, I often, I will try and get up and move a handful of times a week as well.
[16:55] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It just turns out that's the pace of the day.
[16:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But I definitely, I desire to be the meditative one just to have that peace and clarity in the morning and then go into the movement.
[17:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So mine is still a little bit of a work in progress too.
[17:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, I think that shifts too.
[17:08] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I think I really do think it shifts.
[17:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I find myself on my non-morning days really craving that meditative mind time.
[17:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So I can kind of shift a little bit and I think the other thing that's really cool is that you can combine types.
[17:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So let's say you're a morning mover, but you also are a meditative mind.
[17:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I know many people who say every morning I go on my walk and that is my prayer time.
[17:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That is what I'm listening to God or that I'm listening to worship music or something.
[17:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So or you know, listing your gratitude, you can you can combine these in really creative ways.
[17:44] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, no, absolutely.
[17:45] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I know that a lot of women are listening to this.
[17:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And again, they have that yearning to get up a little bit earlier than their kids or to have a more restful, meditative, mindful, uh, what is even though there's one more word I was thinking of.
[18:01] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Just really intentional.
[18:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That's why I have either, because I want to talk about intentionality with our mornings.
[18:05] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But they are just feeling so overwhelmed.
[18:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I mean, what is a good place to start?
[18:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Again, you have these sample routines that people should definitely check out, but do you have something stop the talk of your head?
[18:13] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, so first of all, I just want to say to that woman, like, if you wake up dreading your mornings, you're not a failure.
[18:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Like, you're a human, and it is okay, just to shrink these things down and find something that feels simple and that's something that feels doable for you.
[18:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Even little, tiny practices, like lighting a candle,
[18:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: not just with like an old fashion lighter, but there's something that just slows you down when you light a candle with the wooden match.
[18:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And I think about like churches over the centuries, a candlelight is such an important part of creating this sense of ritual.
[18:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So I think.
[18:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Liding that candle, calling these little things that you do rituals, like, this is my coffee ritual.
[19:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is my prayer ritual.
[19:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is my, I'm going to take care of my body by eating a good breakfast ritual.
[19:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is my stand-out side underneath the big sky and feel the set on my face ritual.
[19:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Like whatever it is to determine that these small things matter and that they can have meaning just in the way we name them.
[19:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Absolutely, that's so good.
[19:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So I think a lot of what you have been saying is applicable to anyone of any faith background.
[19:30] \[SPEAKER_01\]: They can zone the blanks for themselves.
[19:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But I am curious here as we get near the end.
[19:35] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I would love to talk about Jesus a little bit more.
[19:37] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And yeah, the morning ritual through that is it the shema prayer?
[19:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Is that it?
[19:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It is the shema and I just learned it Diane because I recorded the audio book.
[19:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And we looked it up.
[19:49] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It is the shema and doesn't that sound just lovely?
[19:52] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I would love for you to share that here with the listeners.
[19:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: This is wrong.
[19:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's right.
[19:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Okay, absolutely so.
[19:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is an ancient oral testament prayer.
[20:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And the shema is a prayer that the Israelites would have prayed for centuries before Jesus was born.
[20:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So then Jesus was born.
[20:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He's a devout.
[20:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Jew.
[20:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And he would have probably heard the Shima every morning since he was a baby, probably would have recited it as he got older, and it became a part of his faith tradition.
[20:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And we know when they do the Shima's in the morning and at the evening, but certainly in safe to assume that this would have been part of Jesus' morning ritual.
[20:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And what the Shima is is this prayer that's in due to rotomy, and it's repeated in the gospel of Mark,
[20:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: In essence, to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength.
[20:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So Jesus' morning ritual would have been daily expressing His intention to love God with His whole being.
[20:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I think that's so beautiful because our morning intention can be that way.
[20:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We can love God with our whole being.
[21:01] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And maybe that's one thing that a mom that just feels really stressed out for time and feels really chaotic.
[21:08] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Couldn't even do is just like print out those words and put them somewhere she's going to see that see them at the start of the day.
[21:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And just say, this is what I'm going to do.
[21:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'm going to love God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength and think about the way that that looks and it doesn't mean that it has to be.
[21:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You know, jumping through a hundred hoops, it doesn't have to be performative.
[21:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It doesn't have to be pretty.
[21:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It can just be regular and ordinary right where you are.
[21:35] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Absolutely.
[21:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I have an opinion question for you.
[21:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: There's a bigger talk answer.
[21:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But I think I've seen some women invite their children into their morning or in teen, but do you think that this needs to be a personal individual time spent with God or time alone or do you think that, again, their seasons where we invite kids then?
[21:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, I think that is completely up to the mom, the person.
[21:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It doesn't have to look a certain way.
[22:01] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The reality is, when you're home with a few kids, things are just going to be interrupted.
[22:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's the way I quiet my quiet times and my time with God, where the kids were always around.
[22:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I ended up getting them these little notebooks that were spiral bound and they would basically drawing their prayers and then writing their prayers and writing Bible verses.
[22:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I don't know how much of my own stuff like actually landed in my head during that or landed in my heart, but I was in a way like modeling what it looks like to come to the Lord at the beginning of the day, which now, you know, all these years later, I could see the benefit
[22:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: doing those things, it's like, is this, does this even matter?
[22:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What I'm doing, like, certainly some of the things were actually seeping into my own mind, but these practices were also being modeled while my children were watching, and that began their prayer journey.
[23:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now they have a robust morning prayer life.
[23:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They have a robust Bible reading time.
[23:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I mean, one kid's in basically seminary, and the other's a missionary, so, you know,
[23:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: not every kid's going to be that way and I'm not suggesting that makes my parenting superior, but what I am saying is that it works.
[23:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If you can't get it alone, it works to have your kids at your feet.
[23:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, absolutely.
[23:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Well, thanks for sharing all that.
[23:26] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I do think this is an area that can feel overwhelming and daunting and like we're not getting it right.
[23:30] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And like you said, it needs to be Pinterest aesthetic and we should have candles and we should have the best copy.
[23:35] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It needs to be all these things.
[23:37] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I think that when we just allow for it to kind of organically become something that is so uniquely individual to us, I think we're more likely to have a sustainable morning ritual.
[23:48] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Absolutely.
[23:49] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I have something that I'd love for you or your people to have.
[23:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Sure.
[23:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If they just don't want to get the book or they want to get this in addition to the book, but this is something really cool that I use called the My Morning Compass.
[24:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I made it, we made it, our team made it, and it's for free on my website.
[24:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's a morning checklist, and you put the date on there, you put the scripture the day.
[24:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So just like one one scripture, you pick a focus word or intention for the day.
[24:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Your top three to do
[24:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: People you're praying for is like super simple.
[24:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You can knock this thing out in about five minutes and you've started your day off Just really grounded and centered.
[24:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's simple and it does help you have start your day with intentionality No, that's great.
[24:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Thanks for sharing that here at the end But Jennifer as we wrap things up We'll let listeners know where they can grab a copy of your book and connect with you online if they want to do so
[24:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'm at Jennifer Dukesley, everywhere, Facebook, Instagram, and even my website is JenniferDukesley.com and the book page is how to love your morning.com and it shows the places you can buy the book.
[24:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: perfect.
[24:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Well, as we have things up here, I'm going to ask you the final two questions I ask every guest.
[24:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And the first one is, what has been a beneficial resource in your life that you want to show it to listeners?
[25:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They go together my desk treadmill, which I'm standing on right now, along with my weighted vest.
[25:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And I get upwards of 15 to 20,000 steps in per day because when I write and edit and I'm walking all the time.
[25:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'm not going to walk while I'm at a pod chest episode.
[25:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But yeah, I'm getting in a ton of steps.
[25:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I actually wrote
[25:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Oh, me.
[25:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I've heard such good things about the walking treadmill desk or just like one of the... Did you say you have a mat?
[25:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, it's like a walking pad.
[25:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So it is that it's a treadmill.
[25:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's moving underneath me.
[25:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I started at 0.5 and now I'm up to 3.1, which I don't dare go any faster than that.
[25:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I think I'd fall off the back.
[25:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Oh, my last question for you is what is something you can't stop walking.
[25:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Well, in this way, it sounded a little bit unexpected or maybe, maybe not since I just mentioned my steps, but I really can't stop talking about how much our bodies matter and how we don't have to do everything perfectly to care for them.
[25:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I think a lot of us are exhausted because we're trying to,
[26:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: like do life it's such a high bar that I'm just really passionate about helping women like who are the bar a little bit so they can actually feel better and shop for what matters most like not just giving up on workout because you only did it twice this week or not giving up your steps because you only hit 5,000 this week or whatever it is like our bodies matter and their worth every day to begin again.
[26:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah absolutely I totally agree with that.
[26:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Well Jennifer, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom here about mornings.
[26:31] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Thank you for writing this book.
[26:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I know it's going to really impact the woman that choose to read it and have been listening today.
[26:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So thanks so much for joining me.
[26:37] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Thank you.
[26:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: What did you think of the episode?
[26:41] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I hope you enjoyed the conversation.
[26:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: To learn more about today's guest, including links, resources related to everything discussed today, visit the episode page at minimalismomspodcast.com where you can find the entire podcast archive, as well as my book Minimalismoms Living and Parenting with Simplicity, or other ways to connect or work with me online.
[27:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: If you'd like to support the podcast, the easiest and most impactful thing you can do is subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
[27:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And leave a rating or review of your favorite episode.
[27:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Lastly, sharing the show or your favorite episode with friends and social media is very helpful and will encourage others on their journey to think more and do with us.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.