A Morning Basket for Adults: How to Start the Day Right

Mornings can be a hectic and rushed time, even for homeschooling families. This is especially true when you’re responsible for getting the kids their breakfast, answering questions, getting children started on their projects, table time, or other learning tasks. Some families set out a morning basket filled with reading material and gentle ways to start the day that don’t require mom’s attention. But, sometimes we mothers still feel frazzled, cranky, and overwhelmed. One way to help is to create a morning basket for adults! Let me explain to you what I mean by this and how this little bit of self-care can set the tone for a calm day.

What is a Morning Basket for Adults?

A morning basket for adults is a box, basket, or even a shelf filled with items that helps mom nourish her mind and spirit first thing in the morning. It contains an assortment so that it suits her need at the time and prevents boredom. A morning basket for adults could work hand in hand with a prayer closet, but it doesn’t have to. More on that in a bit. Even if you can’t have a special quiet place, you can still have a basket filled with devotionals, worship music, adult coloring books, journaling for anxiety, or other items that allow you to begin each day feeling energized, relaxed, and purposeful. Morning baskets are personal and unique. They usually involve items meant to calm or revive. Add to that any other self-care rituals that make you feel healthy, such as a skin care routine, calming exercise, or power smoothie. A morning basket for adults becomes part of your morning routine that helps you feel prepared for – and in charge of – your day.

Benefits

There are lots of great things that can be gained from your morning basket for adults. Included as part of your morning self-care routine, it allows you to positively set the tone for the entire day ahead of you. You can gain a sense of empowerment by engaging in a particular ritual each day (such as writing in a journal). This is because you are making proactive decisions on how to get things started. The activities you choose can aid in producing that mindset.

Taking time to feed your soul on a regular basis, particularly at the start of the day, will also help to improve your outlook and your coping skills. The sense of calm and control will carry over into the rest of your day. It will help you maintain your mood as you encounter obstacles and in your dealings with others. And, as I mentioned, if you add things like a healthy breakfast and exercise to your new routine, you’ll also face the day more energized and ready to go.

In addition, unlike a prayer closet, you can take your morning basket outdoors or to any room in the house and shut the door. So, if it’s a beautiful day, grab your morning basket, a muffin, and head outdoors. Even if it’s just your backyard (and with a bunch of young children, that’s about as far as you dare, right?), it’s freeing. Soak in the sunlight and feed your soul as you start your day.

Creating a special space

But, what if you live in an apartment or the outdoors is not ideal? You might prefer to have a special place in your home where your morning basket for adults lives. This is sometimes referred to as a prayer closet. It can be literally, a place of quiet prayer and meditation, but it can also serve as a small sanctuary to which you retreat when you feel overwhelmed.

A prayer closet doesn’t have to be a literal closet. Many people consider their bedroom to be their oasis. It’s a quiet, private space meant for relaxation. This space could be a good one for creating an escape. However, we share this space with our husbands and sometimes, our children, too. And, with a dresser and large bed, there may not be room for a small bookshelf on which to put your prayer journal, Bible helps, and other comforting, personal items.

A spare bedroom may serve your purpose better, but most people don’t have a spare room. For these reasons, I personally prefer a literal closet. (Some people even use their bathroom!) I can close the door and it offers quiet and calming surroundings. It is not a dual purpose space where I also store clothes and shoes. Instead, I cleared all that out, gave some stuff away, and made it my special place. Wherever you choose to put your prayer closet, make sure it’s a room with a door that offers various lighting options.

Creating your own calm space can provide you with more than an escape. It can give you the peace of mind, leading you to be refreshed and renewed to face each day.

Suggestions for Using a Morning Basket for Adults

Once you’ve decided where your morning basket will live, it’s time to stock it. Your morning basket should contain activities that you choose and from which you will most benefit. You’ll want to consider adding things that will nourish your soul and that are particularly meaningful to you. I do have some suggestions to get you started, though.

These are my favorite:

• journaling with a small, pretty notebook.
• a favorite Christian author or clean fiction book
• adult coloring pages
• Bible study or devotional (check out my Romans study for women, designed to take less than 20 minutes a day to do)
• calming worship music

These are merely a few ideas. Add whatever resonates with you. Plan to take about 10-30 minutes, more or less depending on your lifestyle. The key to reaping the benefits of a morning basket for adults is to make it a regular practice. Soon you’ll begin to see your life transform.

Digging Deeper in Morning Baskets: 5 Secrets to Awesome Morning Devotions

I have talked about how to use journaling and adult coloring pages for self-care in other posts. Simply click on the highlighted text in the list above to learn more about them. So, I thought I’d take a few minutes to talk about morning devotions and Bible study as part of a morning basket for adults. There are a few secrets to getting the most out of the few minutes you might have in the morning. I certainly advocate for getting up before the kids to enjoy those first moments of quiet before the house erupts with chatter and demands. But, sometimes in spite of our best efforts, it doesn’t always happen. We may get a few minutes or a whole hour. Try these tips to help you.

Have a Plan

Many of us already do this, but just in case, I included this as one of the secrets. This might sound obvious, but when your time is limited, you need an organized plan. Whether you’ve got five minutes or 50 minutes, decide in advance what you will do with that time. Will you read a chapter a day in that new Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth study? Perhaps, you prefer to do an inductive study of one book of the Bible, such as my Faith Journeys Roman Study or Philippians Study. Or, maybe you read a devotion a day from Our Daily Bread or another favorite.

Once you decide what you will read, then add in prayer and/or things. Being intentional and organized helps us use the little time we have more effectively. It also prevents us from making excuses or forgetting to have morning devotions. Instead, it gives us a purpose, something to look forward to, and creates an appointment. However, we do need to be mindful that it doesn’t become just another “to do.”

Keep all your materials together in one place in your morning basket for adults

This secret goes hand-in-hand with the first one. How many times do we leave that morning devotion book in the bathroom, our Bible in the living room chair, and our prayer journal on our bedside? Then, when we want to do morning devotions, we have to hunt all over the house for our materials, wasting precious time. Keep it all together in your morning basket for adults and have a designated place.

I realize this may be difficult, but even if it’s the bathroom, that works! When my children were small, the bathroom functioned as a sanctuary for me. No one bothered me when I was in the bathroom. But, I could still hear them just in case they really needed me. Another place I used for my morning devotions was the car. When I used the car, I had to be more flexible about the time of day. But, insisting on evening grocery shopping alone and then, taking a little extra time for me…well, we moms do what what we have to do, right? It wasn’t the ideal morning basket for adults that I’ve been talking about, but having some time with God is more important those types of particulars.

The important thing to remember is that it doesn’t have to be your bedroom, office, or living room. Be creative! Having a designated place where you know it will be quiet, private, and hold your needed items is essential. Without it, you face constant interruptions and no privacy. To really get the most out of your morning devotions, relax, and get real with Jesus, you need this space.

Make prayer a priority

Very often, when my kids were small, my morning devotions consisted of nothing but prayer. More than anything else, if we really want to see transformation, if we really want to see God move, we need to pray. In addition, to have awesome, life transforming times with our Lord, we need to pray those pour-out-my-heart kind of prayers. Very often, prayer becomes formulaic. Have you ever heard of the prayer acronym A.C.T.S.? It stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanks, and Supplication. It is a great tool to keep us balanced in our prayer life. However, sometimes we lean on it like a crutch or begin to feel it is the only correct way to pray. To really have awesome devotions, though, we need to lay our hearts bare and then really listen. He already knows. But, do we know?

Incorporate worship

And last but not least, the fifth secret to awesome morning devotions is worship. Now, worship doesn’t have to mean singing, although that does have a powerful effect on the state of our hearts and our outlook. I also definitely recommend worship music and singing because that is the surest way to feeling uplifted and connected to our Lord. But, listening to worship music and meditating on the words also affects us in profound ways. And that’s why I suggest including it in your morning basket for adults. However, the most important reason to incorporate worship is that He is worthy. Worship forces us to focus on Him and not on ourselves. We must focus on who he is and what he has done and will do. By doing this, we can relax and release our troubles to him.

Through planning our study, organizing our materials, reserving a space, and placing a high priority on prayer and worship, we can enjoy awesome morning devotions day after day. Try these tips and see how they transform your time with the Lord.

Morning Basket for Adults: Benefits of Including Daily Bible Reading

Sharpens the sword

Ephesians 6: 10-18 tells us how to put on the full armor of God and in verse 17 it says, Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Emphasis mine.) The Word of God is a defensive weapon against the enemy. All the other pieces of armor are offensive, they are not weapons. Even Jesus used it to defend himself against the devil’s schemes as we see in Matthew 4: 1-10, when he repeatedly says It is written.

But how can we wield the word of God effectively to defend ourselves if we don’t know it and know it well?

For example, according to a 2017 study conducted by Lifeway Research, only about 20% of Americans have read the entire Bible at least once. A 2014 study by the same organization found that 44% of Christians surveyed read their Bibles at least a few times a week. But, many of us read our favorite parts over and over again. Let’s commit to reading more than the book of Psalms. I know that reading some of the Old Testament books can be boring and difficult to understand. Numbers, anyone? And yet, have you ever heard this: May the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. That’s Numbers 6: 24-27, a passage from the Old Testament.

Builds wisdom

Proverbs 2: 1-6 tells us, My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. The Bible is that hidden treasure, it is the inspired word of God.

It is not a dead history book, written 2,000 years ago and therefore, irrelevant today. The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Daily Bible reading can transform us, just as any other daily habit can change our lives. It can chase away the anxiety, the overwhelm, the guilt, the resentment, the weariness. Including Bible reading in your morning basket for adults is the first form of self-care and it is powerful. It cuts deep, straight to the heart, molding us and growing fruits of the Spirit. But, only if we dig in.

Invites us to know Jesus better

The Bible is God’s love letter to us. It is the story of redemption. It reveals God’s character to us and the more we read it, the more he speaks to us. If we only read Old Testament stories, we might think that our God is vengeful and mean. Many people who have not read the entire Bible say that. They say, “I cannot believe in a God who would exterminate entire people groups because of their religious practices.” Conversely, we might make the mistake described in Romans 6:1, What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? Only by reading his Word can we begin to understand his nature.

The Bible also tells us about God’s will for our lives. So, not only can we learn about his character, but also about his plan for how we should live. Romans 12:2 says, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will. First, we must allow his Word to transform us and then we will know his will for us.

Some great ways to approach Bible reading as part of your morning basket for adults ritual include:

• a “Read the Bible in a Year” plan
• reading one book at a time all the way through
• illustrated Bible, which is an artistic approach to reading the Bible
• using a meditation or devotional tract

Concluding Thoughts

A morning basket for adults can be a great tool for keeping all of your printed self-care tools in one place–coloring books, books, journals, Bible, and notes. It can help you commit to a time each morning to pray, meditate, and read before starting the day. If you keep your materials in a special place, it invites you to spend time in a sanctuary of peace and calm before the kids intrude. Try this idea and others in the Self-Care for Christian Moms 10-Day Series.