Praying for Joy

For years the very first thing I’ve done every single morning upon waking was pray. If you would have asked me yesterday what is the first thing you do every morning I would have told you exactly that. But today I realized that had changed. I woke up this morning and the very first thing I did was reach for my phone. Yes the crackberry (aka the blackberry for those of you not addicted to it)!!!

Now although I do not know how long I’ve been doing this, I do know how it started. I am a very time oriented person (I inherited that from my dad). When I wake up the first thing I need to know is the time. I used to have an alarm clock but that broke. After that I could look at my cable box and see the time. At some point the Cable Company upgraded the box to a nice sleek space saver that had no clock on the front display. So, I have since gotten in the habit of looking at my phone to see the time as soon as I wake. The problem is I don’t just see the time I see a whole bunch of other little Icons and before you know it I have checked the time, email, text message, facebook, and twitter all before I’ve said a prayer.

Now, I am sure God knows I am not any less grateful for Him blessing me with another day because I checked the crackberry first. The problem is I’m missing the opportunity to start my day off the way I want. Prayer is a wonderful wonderful thing. It allows me to give thanks for things that I am grateful for and focus on things that I am troubled by and ask for guidance. Prayer helps me to relieve stress and anxiety and also focus on positivity.

There are many benefits of prayer (I encourage you all to try it).
• Studies have linked prayer to positive health outcomes with high blood pressure, asthma, heart attacks, headaches and anxiety
• Provides a sense of well-being.
• Improves spiritual practice
• Answered prayers Increase faith
• Better sleep
• Decreased stress

By checking the crackberry first, instead of starting my day with these benefits, I am starting the day thinking about an email about a store sale or bill that is available online, a friend request from someone I probably don’t even remember on facebook, or a tweet about the latest food or diet trend. None of these are bad things but they do not get me in as positive a frame of mind that prayer does.

For a while now I have been having anxiety often without explanation. I am wondering if this could somehow be related to me not starting my day off with that positivity and stress relief that prayer has always provided me. I am not sure but turning to the crackberry first thing in the morning certainly is not helping the situation.

So now that I am aware I am going to go back to starting my day with prayer like I used to. I’ll probably still use the crackberry to see the time until I buy a clock for my bedroom (which will be soon) but I will not access any apps until I’ve had that nice morning chat with God. Starting my day off talking to Him will definitely put me in a place receptive of the Joy. I encourage you all to start your day off with prayer or some other peaceful activity that will allow you to be receptive of all the Joy that may come your way throughout the day.