How do your days start? 

I mean, what routines do you go through as though you are on auto-pilot? 

I don’t know about you but when I stop to think about it, it seems as though I bounce around throughout the house much like a pinball in a machine first thing in the morning.  First, I roll over and sit on the edge of the bed and stare at the print on my Spider Man footy pajamas (with the nifty trap door located at my bee-hiney), wondering if I really have to get up. 

After changing into whatever I decide to wear that day, shave, brush my teeth and wash and dry my ever-thinning hair. I waddle off to the kitchen to snag my first cup of coffee that automatically brewed as I to the study and have my daily quiet time.  It’s then that I slowly wake up and enjoy a time of reading, prayer, and meditation.

Afterwards, I’m off to get dressed and to begin the grind of the day.  Up until a few years ago, the last phase of my “auto-pilot” routine use to be to quietly slip out the door while my first wife lay quietly asleep.

It went like this, pretty much like clock work, for years.

However, quite a while back, when I still had a commute to work, I felt a challenge within the deepest parts of my heart (yes, I do have one despite what some people think).  The thought hit me that I had virtually no connection with my lovely bride until we called each other later in the day or, if we were to busy to call, we saw each other at the end of the work day. 

It suddenly dawned on me that there was something horribly wrong with that picture.  I needed to somehow include my bride in the beginning of my day.  No, that didn’t mean that I was going to start waking her up and say, “Woman!  Where’s my breakfast?”

That wouldn’t have worked.  Besides, I also didn’t want to start my day with a bloody nose!

The change had to be on my part.  I had to have an “attitude adjustment” (and I don’t mean the kind that takes place during “Happy Hour”).  I started kissing my wife good-bye while she was sound asleep.

This presented some challenges.  In those days, I would usually leave the house before sunrise so the bedroom would be dark, making it difficult to find where she was in the bed.  Also, our now-departed dog, Sassy, wass a jet black Pekingese, blending in with the darkness, making her a potential soccer ball.  What to do, what to do? 

Well, in a rare fit of resourcefulness, I began using my Crackberry as a flashlight so as not to wake up my bride (and to make sure that I didn’t get Sassy’s day off to a bad start).  I would then be able to gently kiss my lovely first wife and then be on my merry way.

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking, “Hey!  What good is it if she’s not awake and doesn’t know you’re kissing her?”  Good point.  However, there are mornings where my better half wakes up and kisses me good-bye.  Most mornings, though, she is still sound asleep.  But that’s not the point. 

The point is the adjustment of MY attitude.  My thoughts are, at least temporarily, not on me, my day ahead, and the work that’s to be done.  It is on the person who I would die for and to remind me that she is my first responsibility. 

Somehow, in the overall mix of things, this has a powerful impact on my day and on our marriage.  Some call it “Karma”.  I call it “how we’re created and meant to be”.

These days, I work from home in my own personal man cave (really, it’s an office) so I don’t feel compelled to kiss my wife while she’s still in bed.  However, when I hear her stirring around in the kitchen, I stop what I’m doing and head into the kitchen to start her day with a big hug.  I don’t know about her, but it’s a great way to start my day!

Not long ago, I came across an old Charlie Pride song called, “Kiss An Angel Good Morning”.  Besides being a great song,   it summarizes what I just told you. 

Try starting your day by kissing your angel good morning. 

Oh yeah . . . watch out for the dog!