The First and Last Hour of Your Day

Summary

The first hour after we wake and the last hour before we sleep are often the hardest parts of the day: worries peak, temptations sharpen, and we feel our needs most keenly. Yet these same hours hold a unique sacredness. Drawing on the example of college women who spent a tech-free week and found unexpected intimacy with God in exactly those hours, this reflection offers three simple practices, going social-media-free, surrendering to Jesus, and consciously choosing your vocation, to transform the two most vulnerable hours into the best hours of the day.

Key Points

Two hours unlike any other

• The first and last hour of the day are times of peak vulnerability: we are tired, easily distracted, prone to overthinking, and quick to replay the day or worry about the next.
• A group of college women who tried a tech-free week found these hours the hardest at first, but by midweek discovered they had become their greatest times of intimacy and grace with God.
• Constant social media can steal the inner awareness that is meant for God alone. Reclaiming these hours opens space to know God's love and presence.

Tip one: keep it social-media-free

• Set a boundary that removes social media from the first and last hour of the day.
• We tend to underestimate our capacity and rarely challenge ourselves; this is more possible than it seems.
• Fill the silence instead with God's word, a single line of Scripture as the first and last thought of the day, such as "abide in me," "be still and know that I am God," or "I will never forsake you." This is not positive thinking but soul-strengthening truth.

Tip two: start and end the day with surrender

• Make a simple prayer of surrender, an act of entrustment to Jesus as a person, letting go of whatever is on your mind.
• Surrender means handing the fight to someone more powerful, trusting Jesus to deal with what we cannot.
• Name your worries, hopes, regrets, and the things you wish you had done better, give them to Jesus, and let them go.

Tip three: choose your vocation

• A young mother of three shared that her whole day depends on a choice she makes each morning: "God, I choose to be a mom today. I choose to be a loving wife. I choose to love."
• She can tell the difference between the days she makes that choice and the days she does not.
• God is not asking for a perfect mother, but for her to love perfectly as the mother she is, with her own particular gifts and gaps, in a way only she can.
• Each of us is called to love in a unique and unrepeatable way, wherever we are in life, and that is where true purpose is found.

One day as a microcosm of a life

• The way we begin and end a single day mirrors the way we will one day begin and end our life, so how we live these hours matters.
• These vulnerable times are not occasions to be afraid or to run, but the very moments Jesus invites us into prime time for prayer.
• We cannot do this alone, but everything changes when we know we are turning to someone, opening our hearts to the God who is always with us and waits for us.
• Jesus is not expecting a perfect prayer time; he is expecting you. Give him access to the real you, and you will never be disappointed.

Notable Quotes

"Be still, and see that I am God." — Psalm 46:10

"I will not leave you, and I will not forsake you." — Joshua 1:5

"Abide in me, and I in you." — John 15:4