This week I have been meditating on Psalm 90. Moses, the psalmist, writes about the brevity of life, comparing it to grasses of the field – here today, gone tomorrow. If we are lucky, we will have 70-80 years here on this earth, he says. When I was 20, that sounded like a long time. Today it seems rather short.

The question I have pondered this week is this: what will I do with the days I am given and what does my daily life have to teach me?

My first moments every day are fairly consistent. Curled on my side, my mind begins to awaken. I notice the dog scratching or chewing his paws and I hope he doesn’t get up just yet. I try to lay very still to discourage him from jumping off the bed. With my eyes closed, I attempt to ascertain if Dave is awake. Soon my mind turns to the day. What does it hold? What will I undertake?

I would be lying if I said I feel joy in those early moments of awake. I really just want to go back to sleep. Why can’t I leap out of bed with a song on my tongue and a bounce in my step?

As I read Psalm 90 again today, I was challenged that perhaps I need to change my focus in those first minutes of consciousness. Rather than attempting to stir up joy and delight at the new day, what if my focus was different. Take a look at what I discovered today.

¹⁴Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives.

Psalm 90:14

I asked myself – what if I focused on God’s unfailing love for me, if I allowed it to wash over me in those first moments, allowing it to quell the early morning doldrums? Would I more naturally know joy? Not because my day is filled with fantastic endeavors, but because I took time to swim in his ocean of love.

Another way I was challenged is to begin my day with a prayer similar to the request Moses’ wrote to close his psalm.

¹⁷And may the Lord our God show us his approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful!

Psalm 90:17

As I bask in the ocean of God’s unfailing love for me, let my attention be turned to his eyes, to his look of approval. I wish I could say I don’t care at all what you think or if I have your approval; that I live only to hear God’s “well done!” But it wouldn’t be true. I’m moving that way, he keeps turning my face so I am looking at him. It’s a process.

What about you? Is your self-talk first thing in the morning life giving? Do you struggle needing a new mental routine? Perhaps joining me in refocusing on God’s unfailing love and then a prayer for his approval and touch of success might be just what you need too.