My mentor Dave graciously takes time out for me every week. I appreciate it. I gave him a copy of this book to read, but he does not have the focus of little d and has not finished it yet. This piece is for him.

We are on pattern four “Maximize the Morning” and it seems best to tackle this one and its four chapters all at once. They are “Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun”, “Our First Appointment Each Day”, “Before Leaving the Presence”, and “Try the Fifteen-Minute Plan.” I have to say, I really like this pattern.

First comment on this is that the author references Job 1:5 and indicates “Job began the day…early in the morning”. As discussed in my Job series, I did not know if that was everyday or seven times a year or maybe once a year, but definitely enjoyed the overlap and use of Job as an example. I still like the everyday possibility and he did have 7000 sheep to pick from. The whole point of this first chapter “Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun” was to get out of bed and not waste the morning, obviously the earlier the better is implied.

The second chapter “Our First Appointment Each Day” circles around the concept of daily seeking time with God and not just at random, but as a scheduled event. “A personal appointment with our Father” is the way the author phrases it and the intent is to make a commitment to do it. It’s important, it should be on your schedule. And this is not a routine to get into or a ritual to perform, this is relationship building, spending time with someone who does not just happen to be God. The goal of me spending time with my mentor is to grow. Spending time with God allows us to grow and obtain food for our soul. Christ told us that we do not live for physical food, but by eating and drinking in the love of God.

A concept that is often overlooked was highlighted in this chapter. God wants us to do work for Him while we are on earth, but He is much more concerned about our walk with Him than our work for Him. My friend Paul alluded to this in our Bible study yesterday. Walking with God is more than witnessing to others and teaching others, it is about learning ourselves who God is and how to listen to Him.

This next part is the part I really love. Waking up early is good, but God is always around. Having an appointment is good, but it’s the doing not the timing. This next part is the only part that really seems to push forward the following for me. The chapter is “Before Leaving the Presence” and it moves quiet time from praying and reading to getting some help from our Father. The idea is that after you have prayed, after you have read, but before you charge off to conquer the day, you stop and consider what the day holds and ask God what to tackle first.

In the previous chapters, the goal was to list what we have to do or can do or whatever on God’s green earth that we can list. Here in this one, we actually look at the lists and pick which things need to be done today. We look them over, ask for guidance, and then the write down the biggest one or ones and then we charge forth to accomplish them. The author contends this should take 2-3 minutes and I have found that it does if you have been maintaining your lists and following the process.

Brain Tracy in a book “Eat That Frog” puts forth that the ability to concentrate on one thing at a time, to do it well, and finish it is “the” key to great success, achievement, respect, status, happiness, and all that worldly “blank” the world asks us to chase. However, the tool works equally well for those things that God calls us to do, be it earning money, getting new tires on the car, or teaching the kids the difference between Paul and Peter. Note that the author reminds us that sometimes God uses interruptions to show us our next assignment, so maintain flexibility, but do not be sidetracked from completing each day’s main task(s).

This piece concludes with the “Try the Fifteen-Minute Plan” chapter and builds on the example of this process being applied by Charles Schwab at Bethlehem Steel. Schwab was told the plan (in secular terms) and to use it and then pay the consultant whatever fee he thought was right. Schwab did, he paid the consultant well, and became one of the most successful men in US History. The author asks us to try this for a month: five minutes reading, five minutes praying, and five minutes planning. He knows this will greatly improve our lives and hopefully convince us to do it as long as we live. So I encourage you to accept the challenge, 15 minutes a day for a month, and see how it goes.