Starting the day right

THIS may look like just a minor detail in our life, but it

actually plays an important, strategic role. If we know how to start

our day well, most likely our whole day will run and end well too.

Ignoring this detail will most likely leave us always struggling to

prime ourselves to do what we are supposed to do the whole day. It

would really be quite a drag.

              Starting our day right can mean many things. But one

thing, for sure, it is about the habit of greeting God right upon

waking up, then thanking him at least for the sleep regardless of how

it went, and then begin to offer the whole day to him.

  

            That way we start to burn the fire of love in us. Let’s

always remember that loving is the ideal condition to be in, and the

earlier we set ourselves in it, the better. We are actually meant for

loving. We demean our humanity if we fail to love.

  

            And the first object of our love should be God since he is

the very essence of love, and the source, end, pattern and power of

love. We need to make acts of faith to be able to feel the urge to

love God first and last, because only through him can we love

everybody and everything else properly.

  

            That morning offering we make as we wake up will provide

us with the proper spiritual and supernatural tone to our attitudes,

our thoughts, desires, words and deeds. It will remind us that our

whole life is and should be an offering for it to be a life of love

meant for us.

  

            Yes, our life ought to be spent as an offering. It has to

be lived as a gift, because it is first of all a gift also from God to

us. In other words, our life has to mirror the life of God himself,

whose image and likeness we are. Since God is love, is self-giving,

then we too have to live in love and in self-giving.

  

            Let us remember to renew many times during the day that

initial offering we do as we wake up, so that the fire of love will

continue not only to burn, but to also to grow until we are totally

consumed by it at the end of the day.

  

            That’s when we can say we have completed or perfected our

offering of ourselves to God and to others. That’s when we can say we

have loved fully. That’s when we can say we have consummated our

humanity for that day.

  

            We need to renew our morning offering often during the day

since we have to contend with many things that will try to ebb away

our love. We have our own personal weaknesses, our laziness and

complacency. We also have to contend with the many temptations around

that tend to make us self-centered instead of being focused on God and

on others.

  

            Renewing our morning offering often during the day will

launch us into some kind of divine adventure where we will be happily

and gamely confronted with challenges and trials. There will be ups

and downs, successes and failures, etc. But then again, as long as we

offer everything to God, all will just be fine.

  

            Let us make it a habit to make this morning offering

everyday as we wake up. When we manage to start the day right, we are

bound to end that day right too, that is, with God and in communion

with everybody else somehow.