How often do you praise God? I don’t know about you but my Sunday school class sure had a hard time answering this question. It is easy to see why though, how often do we honestly think about it? The bible tells us that we should continually praise God (Hebrews 13:15), but sometimes we care about how many likes we get on Facebook versus the amount of praise we give God.

That was exactly what I realized when I asked my Sunday school class this question. My class full of teenagers knows more about the amount of Instagram likes than the amount of praise they have given the Savior. It was a little disheartening; I am not going to lie. That is where the praise journal idea came from.
So, what is praise journaling? It is a journaling technique that allows you to not only track the praise that you give to God, but also allows you to challenge yourself to praise Him more each day. So, let’s get started!

Choose your journal

​You can use one of two types of books. A day runner or a notebook. Pick the one that works for you the best. The most important factor is that the book is empty. Because you don’t want to mix this journal up with any other note taking you are doing. This way you can focus on what you are writing, which is very important. This notebook should be small enough for you to carry with you all the time. You will always have this notebook with you, so also make sure it is one you like and fits your life.

​Divide your journal

Make 2 columns on each day if you got a day runner, 3 if you got a notebook. In both books the first column should say “What for”. The second should say “When”. If you have a notebook, then the third column should say “Date”.

Start tracking in your journal

Now it is time to start tracking your praise. Every time you praise God, I want you to write it down in your journal. Keep track of what you praised Him for, when you did it, and the date you did it. Track every single time you praise Him. When you do it in prayer, at work, at school. Everywhere. Every time you finish praising Him stop and write it down.

​Review your journal

​The previous step was the second most important step in this process. This one is the most important. Every morning when you wake up review your journal for the previous day. Understand when you praised God, and question when you didn’t. Start to learn your habits and challenges. Learn more about how and why you praise God. This reflection time is imperative to this activity.

​Challenge yourself

This final step is the part that will make you better at praising God, because regardless of the number of praises that you counted in your review time no amount of praise to God is enough. In this step, you challenge yourself to praise God more than what you did the day before. Challenge yourself to be better, for God, then you will be better.

​By using the praise journaling technique, you will not only know how often you praise God, but you will challenge yourself to be better for God. That is what this journey is about, to be better, not for ourselves but for the Lord, so we can be His living sacrifice (Romans 12:1).

​I hope this can help you. I pray you are blessed by this technique. We are all in this together. Have a blessed day!

Your alarm just went off and it is time for you to get up in the morning, what do you do? Hit the snooze button and try to steal a little more sleep? Simply hop into the shower and rush out the door? Breakfast? Here is a bigger question do you take time for God?

​I know I didn’t do it often enough. Just being honest and transparent. Once I modified my morning routine to revolve around my faith two things happened. The first is that I was generally happier throughout the day, because I knew I had given God my attention first (Matthew 6:33). The second being that I realized that I am significantly more productive both spiritually and physically. So hopefully this helps you to get more out of your mornings:

Morning Prayer

I start my morning with prayer, thanksgiving, and praise. Why? Because I was blessed with waking up this morning so why wouldn’t I give Him the praise and thanksgiving for that. My prayer is simple:

​“Lord I thank you and magnify you. I thank you for waking me up this morning. For touching me with Your finger of life. I ask that you forgive me of my sins those both known and unknown. Those that are unknown please bring them to light so I can do better by You. I ask that You have Your way in my life today. I also ask that You have Your way in the life of my family and leaders. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.”

​This helps to ground me for the day. It starts it off right. I have invited God into my life. This helps to remind me of what is the most important in my life.

Morning Devotional

​Then, before I watch anything else I go to YouTube and watch the Faithbox devotional. I do this because I want to make sure the first media that I consume is one that has faith at the center. Not only am I consuming media that revolves around my faith but I am also setting a theme for my day. I can take what Willie is saying and figure out how it applies to my day and my life. I want to meditate on what Willie is saying, and get the most out of what is being taught. I do this before I check my email, my text messages, my social media, or any other media. This way God is the first thing I consume in my day.

Review My Praise Journal

Next I go over my praise journal. What is a praise journal? My praise journal is where I keep an account of how often I praise God every day. Each morning I review my previous day and challenge myself to praise Him more than I did the day before. We wrote an entire article on the topic that you can read here if you want to know how to get started with your own praise journal. By reviewing and challenging my praise of God each day I am recommitting myself to do better by God.

​Need a good praise journal? Checkout this one from Tyndale. It is a beautiful and scripture filled journal that will make journaling even more enjoyable. And you get to color. Boom!

Reconnect With The World

​Now that I have taken care of God now I can start to take care of the rest of my life. The first step in this is reconnecting with the world. I finally check my phone, answer emails, text messages, and kiss my wife. This for me is the hardest part. I am tempted during everything else that I did in the morning to pick up my phone, check social media, emails, and everything else that our wonderful phones connects us to. The thing is when you take the time to put God first then you truly start living for Him.

Workout

Now that I have done a spiritual workout now it is time to do a physical one. Why? Because my body is meant to be a temple for the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16-17), so I must take the time to take care of it. I do some form of workout, be it taking a walk or doing a quick workout routine, however it is achieved a workout is on the agenda.

Shower, Coffee, and Breakfast

​Now it is time for me to get cleaned up and put something in my body. My normal varies often depending on what I am in the mood for. I suggest finding your breakfast groove. I know one item that tends to always be on the list and that is coffee. If you use cream in your coffee check out this awesome video by Cooking With Jack Show. It is healthier than the normal stuff and easy to make.

​As for other items, I would recommend either going with what you know or checking out YouTubers like the Domestic Geek to find inspiration for your breakfast. Check out her playlist below.

Review My To-Do List

​While I am eating, I review my To-Do list that I made the night before. That is a part of my nightly routine. Speaking of nightly routine, I think I have my next blog post. When I write it I will update this one with a link to it. But back on topic I review my list and make any modification that I need to. Let’s be honest no to-do list is perfect but if we take the time to review it we can find most of the missing items.

I personally use the RocketBook Wave notebook to keep track of my to-do list because you can easily erase it. You can check it out here.

Get Dressed, Get Lunch, Get Prayed Up

Now that I have finished everything else that I needed to do it is time to get ready to go. I take the time to get dressed for work, grab my lunch, pack my things, and pray one last time before I run out the door. For me praying before I leave is crucial to keeping myself centered in Christ for the remainder of my day. My prayer here is:

​“Lord I thank you for being who you are in my life. You have blessed me exceedingly and abundantly. I ask that you forgive me of my sins those both known and unknown. Those that are unknown please bring them to light so I can do better by You. I ask that You have Your way on my job today. That you set an atmosphere of peace. One which we can get our work done without confusion or dissent. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.”

Then I head to work. That is the morning routine. No I don’t achieve this every single day. Sometimes I am fasting so the routine changes. Sometimes I just am too tired to do it all. As Paul said:

I am not already perfected nor have I attained

Philippians 3:13

So I in no way will say that I don’t slack some time. But this is what I strive for. This way I can keep God in the center of my life.

​I hope this helped some of you. Please make sure to leave us comments below on things you do in the morning to put God at the center of your life.

Amen!