“Hello Mornings: How to Build a Grace-Filled, Life-Giving Morning Routine” by Kat Lee
I love mornings in the Spring! The weather is cool, the birds are singing, the sun shines enough just to illuminate the glory of nature. Living in rural western Kentucky, I am blessed with so much natural beauty that some only get to see in picture books. Every time I get to bed early in order to wake up early, I am so blessed. The day feels longer, allowing me to get more stuff done. Also, life seems less chaotic because I don’t feel rushed all the time. If there are so many benefits to waking up early, then why is it so hard! Even though I love mornings and all it brings, I can’t stand waking up early. I struggle so much to get out of bed, and now with school over for the summer, I don’t want to have to get up if I don’t need to. Because of my struggles and my limited knowledge of the benefits of waking up early, I picked up the book, “Hello Mornings: How to Build a Grace-Filled, Life-Giving Morning Routine.”
If you are into self-help books, this one is no different than others in that it contains very good tidbits on how to start to better your life. But a major difference was that the author, Kat Lee, recommends starting off extremely small.
In order to begin your morning routine, she is asking you to wake up three minutes earlier than usual. That’s it. Just three minutes. In her book, her philosophy is that we need to start very small, which is the opposite on how I start anything new. She says that if you want to implement a workout routine, start with a one-minute plank, or a one-minute walk, or do jumping jacks for one minute. If you want to work on your spiritual life, read one verse in the morning. She even recommends what verse you should start off with. She emphasizes a small step approach and then to build upon that. Each person will focus on three different things and each thing takes up only one minute of your time. The three-minute routine Lee lays out in her book introduces an integral mixture of Bible study, planning and fitness that lays out a foundational morning habit that fits any schedule. The fact that the new routine is so simple and takes very little time is what makes it so effective.
All of us have three minutes. Not doing something because it takes too much time or we are too busy is an excuse I have used all the time. Removing that excuse, allows me to be productive, even if I am productive for only three minutes. It is a start and a good start. The only part I didn’t like about this book was the life stories. I get that it is important to get to know the author, and that the stories are there to point to a truth she is trying to get through to me, but the book read a lot like a blog post. It is the same feeling I get when I look up a recipe online. Just give me the recipe, I really don’t need to know about your kid’s school art work, or your husband’s cute and annoying habits. I know some people like to know all of these things, but for me, her stories got in the way. Now, the book did change for the better toward the end. There were less stories and more pragmatic tools to help me get started in fixing my life!
In her defense, Lee did begin her book career as a blogger, so I can’t fault her that the book for the first half read a lot like an extra long blog post. At the end of it all, I am taking some of her advice and have begun my three-minute morning routines. I recommend this book to anyone who likes Christian self-help books and doesn’t mind some funny life stories in the mix of it.
I gave this book 3 stars out of 5. This book has a Goodreads rating of 4.18. The book is 240 pages long.
