A Breakfast of Words
I LOVE breakfast – it is absolutely an essential part to my day. Eating a simple breakfast of fried eggs each morning gives me lean proteins and nutrients I’ll need to stay feeling full and energized all morning. Oh, and don’t forget the piping hot, dark coffee. Yes, a morning with coffee and eggs is a morning that proceeds a beautiful day. Breakfast… I guess that’s why they call it that - you are “breaking” your “fast” — it is the longest distance between meals each day – from 6pm to 6am – its a full 12 hours of fasting! Don’t you want something GREAT to break the fast and begin the day afresh?
What goes into your mouth is important, but Jesus says that what comes out of your mouth is even more important. In fact, the words you speak, not your diet, are what make you healthy. Just look:
“What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’” — (Mt. 15:11)
What is the FIRST thing OUT of your mouth each morning? Can you even remember?
Think about it for just a minute. Each and every night you close your mouth, and you live in silence for many hours. In all the rush and noise of this world, you make it a daily habit to spend close to a 1/3 of each day in utter darkness and silence. Kinda beautiful, eh?
But what breaks that “fasting” from words? How do you greet the new day? Is it with blessing or cursing?
Why not start this new year with a resolution to have a “Breakfast of Words” – give yourself a simple phrase or sentence to greet each new day.
I had noticed that my days were starting off on the wrong foot – and I came to believe it was the mindset in which I was approaching my days – if the first things that roll through my mind or off my tongue are, “Shoot – I’ve forgot to call that guy yesterday,” or “I feel groggy and awful,” imagine how the rest of my days went! I had enough - I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.
Since then, I’ve been doing a little “holy experiment” trying it out, and I’ve lived to tell the tale. And I’ve got to say – its GREAT!
Each morning, I’ll say this as my eggs are cooking:
“Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit – as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, AMEN.”
I don’t know about you but if you say that, even if you begin without “feeling like it” – by the end, you just might have a slight smile on your face. You remember that no matter how you might feel, or what might be going on in your life, a regular diet of these words (or something like them) will change your day. And if you can change your day, you can change your week, month, year…even your life.
Its the simple things like this that make the biggest difference. New Years Resolutions don’t have to be BIG – they just have to be consistent.
Take a daily “Breakfast of Words” – start your day’s dialogue in a place of joy, centering, and purpose. And see what happens!
Tunesntoons is discussing. 
H a s h b r o w n 11:29 pm on November 15, 2011 Permalink
This is a great point/topic. I remember a church movement to which I once belonged having bowling get-togethers every other week, where older members and younger members were on mixed teams, hanging out and building relationships. Although people were often drawn to folks in their same age group, there was a degree of elder-to-minor nurturing happening. Some struggles for many church families, sadly–and a topic worth addressing–are having a balance of (1) interacting with regular people (i.e., non-Christians) and interacting with our brethren in the Lord and (2) interacting with our peers who are like us and interacting with wiser/more mature believers.
Some of us lean heavily towards spending time with our brethren in the
Lord–and, often times, folks around the same age. Some of us
lean more heavily towards spending time with regular folks or those new
to the Church and doing the nurturing. Many churches of whom I’ve been a part have, at the very least, always taken nurturing brand new “converts” seriously–inviting friends and/or volunteers to stay in regular contact with and support them, inviting newly-born-again folks to join small groups, discipleship trainings, Bible studies, various ministry groups, etc. Don’t know if a new model/paradigm is needed for older believers and younger believers to see how spending time together can look (e.g., explicitly teaching someone else’s minors/children, beyond just being a role model, can be a sketchy topic for many)…or if folks just need to follow the Spirit leading them to help raise the next generation.
Mark W 2:50 pm on November 16, 2011 Permalink
Well said! The two fulcrums you describe are plainly visible in the lives of most Christians. I’m wondering if you see those two tensions (Christian/Non-Christian) and (peer/non-peer) as balances between “good and bad” – what I mean is, are there seasons we need to be with people just like us, and seasons we need to venture out into diversity?
I tend to think that just like the High School lunch room – it is “easier” to sit at the table of folks just like me (nerds, jocks, goths, etc) – this carries over into adulthood too – Chicago’s neighborhoods look a lot like the High School lunch room – just as segregated. This is both beautiful and tragic. When folks hang out with people like them, real cultures are created. But there is rarely transformation and stretching unless heterogeneity is encouraged.
Follow up with me on this – you’ve got my gears turnin’…
Web Hosting Provider 6:53 am on January 17, 2012 Permalink
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