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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rev Richard Littledale

Good morning.

Strange to say, but this is actually a perfectly normal time of day for me. I seem to be in the habit of waking each day at 5am, and even if I were not – my dog now has the same habit, so that’s that. There are so many things I love about the early morning. I love the daily drama of the transition from night to day in the skies above my head. I love the sound of the dawn chorus, and I love the sense of new possibilities. I believe it was Winnie the Pooh who thought that wondering what exciting was going to happen today and wondering what was for breakfast pretty much amount to the same thing. There’s a lot of wisdom in that old bear.

For these past few years, I have been sharing my breakfast with a remarkable group of people online. They call themselves the ‘Early risers’ club’, and most of them are healthcare professionals. Some are coming home from a night shift, some are heading out to a day shift, but all have one aim in attending the club – to encourage the others. Some days, I join in, but other days I let the messages of encouragement wash all around me like warm water through your toes on a beach. It really is a wonderful place to be.

People often complain about social media being a toxic place – but it is as toxic, or as healthy as you choose to make it. The apostle Paul writes whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Dear God, help me two dwell on the good and lovely things today, and to help others to do the same.

Amen