Reading the Bible before your phone in the morning
The alarm rings, and your hand heads for the phone on its own: messages, news, social networks. In three minutes, you have absorbed the stress of ten people before saying good morning to anyone. This quest invites you to a tiny but powerful change: read the Bible first.
What it looks like in your day
It is not about getting up at five o'clock or studying at length. The idea is simple: before opening any screen, you read a few verses. To make it stick, prepare the night before:
- Put your Bible near your bed, or on the kitchen table. A paper version is ideal, because it comes with no notifications.
- Put your phone elsewhere: on the dresser, in airplane mode, or in another room with a real alarm clock to wake you.
- Choose a passage in advance. A chapter of a Gospel, a psalm. You won't have to think on waking.
- Set yourself a minimum. Five verses. If you read more, all the better.
On waking: a big glass of water, the Bible, a few verses, one sentence of prayer. Then, and only then, the phone. If you use a Bible app on your phone, first switch to airplane mode, open the Bible directly, and touch nothing else.
For those who are not morning people, nothing stops you from doing this reading after breakfast, as long as it comes before the phone. What matters is giving first place to a word greater than your own.
If you are in a hurry, three verses read slowly are better than nothing. If you are a beginner, start with a psalm. If you have a family, settle in a quiet corner.
What the Bible says
The believers of the Bible readily began their day with prayer and listening to God. The prophet Isaiah speaks of his experience this way:
“The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.”
Every morning, God wakens his ear to hear as the learned. Morning is a time when you learn to listen before speaking.
The psalmist describes the same discipline, with an almost joyful eagerness:
“Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.”
"Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word": he wakes up with a longing. And Jesus himself, in the Gospel of Mark, went out well before dawn to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35).
What the text offers you is not a chore, but a choice of priority: what you put first in your day guides what follows.
Pitfalls to avoid
Morning self-flagellation. If you miss two days, don't tell yourself you are hopeless. Pick it up the next day, without justifying yourself.
Replacing reading with a meditation app. Apps are useful, but if the reading happens on your phone, you risk drifting to something else. If possible, use a paper copy.
Being rigid. If your week is unusual (night shifts, sick children), adjust. The principle is not the hour, but the order: Bible first, screen afterward.
Reading without paying attention. You can read with half-closed eyes, retaining nothing. If you are too sleepy, read a psalm aloud: it wakes you up.
Judging the one who wakes up with their phone. Some need it for their work or their family. This quest is not a universal rule, it is a practice for whoever wants to try it.
Tonight, set your Bible near your bed and put your phone elsewhere. Tomorrow morning, read five verses before anything else.