Claim the First Fifteen Minutes

This week's tip comes from Mark 1:35, where Jesus rises before dawn to pray after an exhausting day. The practice is this: for the next seven days, give God the first fifteen minutes after you wake, before you look at your phone.

Decide the details tonight so there is nothing to decide in the morning. Put the phone in another room or on the far side of the bedroom. Set out a Bible and a chair. Choose the passage in advance; this week Mark 1 to 4 will serve well, one short section a day. Read it slowly once, then read it again, then pray about whatever stood out. If your mind wanders, bring it back without irritation. That is what minds do.

If you have small children who wake early, fifteen minutes may need to become five, or may need to move to a different part of the day. The principle is the ordering, not the clock. God before the feed, the inbox and the news. By next Saturday you will not have become a mystic, but you will have seven mornings behind you in which the first voice you heard was his, and that is a beginning worth keeping.