It’s Wednesday. At our home there will be the hustle of breakfast, clothes, teeth, hair, shoes, book bags, pile in the car, drive across town, car line, pre-school drop off, drive back across town, and sit in the minivan in the garage and . . . I exhale. And by exhale I actually mean “scroll Instagram.” I will then unload my 15-month-old and almost three-year-old and settle them with a mix of toys and PBS Kids.
Then I will sit down to my breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee. I will crack open my Bible and pray The Morning Offering, Grace, and three simple words, “Come, Holy Spirit.”
I know people who start their day with prayer as they lie in bed, before their feet even hit the floor each morning. I know others who wake up before everyone in the rest of their household to read, pray, and journal. They need that time with God before the crazy even begins and their ways make so much sense. But nothing, nothing, has worked for me like my current routine.
My daily breakfast dates with the Word Made Flesh shine light on the ways that I need to recenter, refocus, and begin again. My God meets me in Sacred Scripture and He guides me through my days. Or, as the psalmist put it, “Your Word, O Lord, is a lamp for my feet.”
There are days when schedules change and my daily time of breakfast, prayer, and Scripture doesn’t happen in quite the same way, but this pause in the hectic is my favorite encounter with Christ. To me it feels the same way as my husband coming home from work while I am cooking dinner, breaking up fights, holding a crying baby, and quizzing a child on spelling words. The love of my life has arrived! He has met me in the middle of my messy life! His loving presence will make all of this better, will make of all of it worthwhile!
At five o’clock in the evening there is nothing better than a kiss from my husband in the middle of the kitchen. At nine o’clock in the morning there is nothing better than a moment with Jesus over coffee, bacon, and buttery toast.
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Bonnie Engstrom is a writer, baker, speaker, and homemaker. She, her husband, and seven children live in central Illinois, and her son’s alleged miraculous healing through the intercession of Venerable Fulton Sheen was submitted to the Vatican for Sheen’s beatification. Bonnie pretends she has a green thumb, bakes a fantastic chocolate chip cookie, loves naps and chai tea, and blogs. You can find out more about her here. She is the author of the Blessed Conversations Mystery: Believe study found here.
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