By Katie Bennett, Contributing Writer

Homemaking is a ministry.

I’ve internalized that as I’ve risen up into my Biblical role as a woman, wife and mother over the past several years.

All the logistical aspects of running a home well, such as meal-preparation, laundry, tidying, cleaning, decorating, et cetera, are avenues to honor God by working hard, creating a space for hospitality and meeting the needs of our family. In this way we provide a secure, predictable environment for them.

This becomes their safe launching point into the world and the sanctuary to which they return when they need to rest and refuel.

It makes sense, but how to actually do it?

Many women struggle to feel successful as homemakers. …Ask me how I know.

However, for me, through a lot of hard-work and many successes and failures, I’ve figured a few things out. I’m beginning to find that feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction in my homemaking, and it’s worth the effort! (But it does take effort.)

Mostly, all of these changes have come through the establishment of new daily habits.

Wow, habits are powerful little things!

One key time of day in which I’ve been grooming my personal habits this summer is the mornings. I recently took a 14-day online course called Make Over Your Mornings, which was extremely well-timed in my life and helped me hugely. Read more about my thoughts on that here and here.

Through examining big picture goals, stress points in my home, and family needs, I’ve created a new and better morning routine! Here’s what I came up with.

My Homemaker’s Morning Routine

1. Get up at 6:00 

2. Drink a glass of water and exercise for 10-20 minutes

I’ve been using workouts by Lindsey Brin of Moms Into Fitness from her YouTube Channel. Some of her videos are even designed for postpartum moms specifically (that’s me!).

3. Make coffee, eat breakfast and spend time with God

I don’t put a time limit on this because, if God is calling me to be in His presence, that’s where I’m going to stay! I usually know when I’m done. I’d say it’s usually 20 minutes or so.

I’m currently structuring this time as follows:

• read one chapter of the Bible (I’m reading Isaiah and loving it.)
• write down key verses and journal my thoughts
• spend time praying

 4. Get myself ready for the day

If the kids are still sleeping at this point, I’m actually putting on makeup and getting fixed up for the day. However, if they’re awake and need me, this is my “least important” and “most forgiving” component. If I don’t get to it, it’s ok, although I do want to put a bit more effort into my daily appearance as I can.

5. Unload the dishwasher

I wait to do this until my children are up and awake because it’s loud! It makes sense to take care of it while they eat breakfast since I’ve already eaten, and I want to be in the kitchen with them anyway.

6. Get everyone dressed, beds made, curtains drawn, and dirty clothes picked up

Even though we don’t go anywhere some days (my kids are not school-aged and I’m a SAHM), we always get dressed. We systematically go through each room, completing the above tasks. It’s a routine that we’ve established that makes our home feel so much better!

So if you’re not feeling successful in your homemaking… PLEASE, do yourself a favor and create a morning routine. Then stick to it!

If you need help in this area, I highly recommend the course I took. It was motivating and provided practical resources to help me become more disciplined with my mornings.

Join Me For a Challenge!

In celebration of the new year and getting things into better routines and schedules, I will be going through a MYM challenge for anyone who wants to follow along. Get all the details & join in here!

Crystal’s grace-filled and simple approach to forming daily routines and rituals is a breath of fresh air. It doesn’t have to take a huge amount of time to transform your homemaking – in fact, if you can commit just 10 minutes a day, you can see a HUGE improvement in your homemaking. Check out the course today!

P.S. Crystal offers a 100% money back guarantee in case the course isn’t what you expected or wasn’t helpful. Now you literally have no reason not to go check it out!

What does your morning routine look like?