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Your evening routine could use some work if you are anything like me. I have a few things that I do every night, but I rarely do them in the same order. If that’s you, then keep reading. I’m going to give you some steps to a Godly evening routine.
Suppose you don’t know how to set a routine, head over and check my post about that. Once you know how to set a routine and have your evening routine planned out and working for you, you can read the 9 steps to a Godly morning routine.
Prepare for the Morning
As I mentioned in the morning routine post, your evening routine includes preparations for the morning.
Pick out your clothes for the next day.
If you are staying at home, find something comfortable to wear. If you have to go to the office, find something office appropriate and comfortable. I’m not a fashionista, but comfort is a big deal for me. You should probably figure out what the kids are going to wear the next day as well if they aren’t old enough to choose their own outfits.
Figure out what you are going to have for breakfast.
Prepare anything ahead of time that you can. Go ahead and get the coffee pot ready so all you have to do is hit start. Set out the plates and silverware. You can even put out the boxes of cereal on the counter if that is what you are eating.
Put your Bible study materials together.
Right now, I’m just beginning a Bible journaling journey. My stickers, markers, notebooks, and Bibles (I have 3) are in a stack but not very neat. I’m going to have to work on this so that I can have my desk space back. Put all of yours together, even if they aren’t neat, so that you are ready to study in the morning.
Make a to-do list.
Be sure to star the 2-3 most important/hardest things for the next day. Don’t try to over plan though. It will make you stressed and anxious for the morning.
Make your water.
Grab your insulated cup and fill it with ice and water. If you don’t like really cold water, don’t add as much ice. Personally, I put as much ice in my cup as I can get and still close the lid. Then I fill the empty space with water.
Set your alarms.
Make sure that you turn up the volume on your clock or phone so that you can hear the alarm.
Now, you are prepared for tomorrow. You can do the rest of your evening routine. Of course, these are not in any specific order. You can do them as you wish because everyone is different, so their evenings are arranged differently.
Evening Routine
Read
Every day, you should take the time to try to read 5-10 pages of a book of your choice. If you have time to read more, that’s great. Over Christmas, my husband and I started binge-watching (re-watching) NCIS on Netflix. There are 15 seasons there. He would work on his computer and I would read while we were “watching” the shows. I read 3 books by doing that.
Now that January is here, I haven’t figured out where my reading time went, but I will find it again. You should too. Find a book on your TBR (to be read) list. Open it up and start reading. Again, you only need to read 5-10 pages a night, unless you want to and have time to read more.
Journal
Journaling is a great way to write down your positives and negatives from the day. You can take your positives with you to the next day, but leave the negatives in the current day. You wrote them down, no need to take them with you.
Pray
A lot of people pray at the end of the day because they forgot to do it earlier in the day. Even if you prayed earlier, or 10 times, in the day, pray before bed. It will help to calm your spirit and ease your mind into a restful night.
Listen to Music
I’m not saying to crank up the loud jams on your Spotify account right now. Just turn on some slow worship music or instrumentals. Don’t make it too loud because you are trying to relax now.
Wash Up
Before going to bed, you should be sure to wash your face and hands. Get any makeup off that you may have worn during the day. Brush your teeth. Comb through your hair or do whatever you normally do to it before bed. During the summer, I like to wash my hair at night and braid it so that it will be wavy the next day. Washing up will help you to wash the day away; yes, it’s cliche. But, you and I both know how good a warm washcloth feels on a tired face at night.
Stretch
During your evening routine, stretch your muscles. I know you probably did this in the morning, but it’s helpful at night too. You may have been sitting or standing a lot during the day. Stretching will help you to elongate the muscles in your body before lying down for the night. Plus, doesn’t it feel good to stretch out before going to bed?
Hit the Off Button
I have read that it’s best for us to turn off electronics 30-60 minutes before going to bed. However, I am horrible at doing that. Some nights, I play games on my phone until I roll over to close my eyes. Every night, I have the TV playing so that I have background noise in my room. I know; it’s bad, but I do it anyway.
As for my phone, I keep it beside me all the time. I’m not always on it, but I have it near me. We have some people with critical illnesses in my family, and I work from home and am more available than others in the family. I also use it for my alarms most of the time. Do you have your phone in the room with you at night?
Conclusion
Obviously, there is no singular perfect evening routine that is one size fits all. These are suggestions for things that you can include in your evening routine to hopefully make your night and morning a little better.
In the comments, tell me something else that you include in your evening routine. Is there anything I missed that should be on this list?