Friday is pizza night! She likes her rituals and routines. It helps her mind stay organized, and although it’s a night for ooey gooey goodness on bread, she can mix it up too. The foundation is always the same, a crust and sauce, the accoutrements of the pie are endless: thick or thin crust; white, red, or oil sauce; meat or no meat; veggies or no veggies, and which ones go with what! Oh pizza is so much fun, and it doesn’t hurt that on Friday she doesn’t have to say, “What’s for dinner tonight?”

Rituals and routines were not a part of my growing up, so I was at a rather advanced age when I learned their value, and I am still learning how to have routine and spontaneity both in harmony. My rituals upon waking and retiring are chiseled in, I wake up, brush my teeth, have coffee with my friends on TBN before working, and at the end of the day I brush my teeth, sink into the clouds, read until the night dove descends at 11:30. I have found these routines help me wake up and fall asleep. I am truly working on getting more routine in my life, but I also do not like being a slave to a schedule. If I don’t brush my teeth before leaving the bathroom in the morning, I kinda forget until later, and I know, ewwww, but I don’t want to eat lunch at a set time, and I don’t want to do homework at a set time, and I don’t want to exercise (when I do it) at a set time, so I’ve learned to block my events in a way that can be shifted. This flexibility provides the illusion that I am free to do as I please. We are free, right? Yet, sometimes I wonder if I am creating ritual ruts. My morning and night rituals are pretty stringent, and I have a hard time veering from the norm, even for things that are fun. A rut is a groove that holds things in place. We tend to think of ruts in a negative way, but I don’t think it’s necessarily good or bad, unless, like I mentioned it prevents you from changing.

What do you think? Are you a routine machine, one who thrives on the daily rituals? Or are you the one who walks the path as it arises? Are there places in your life that have become grooves, and is that fine or would you like to change?

As a Christian, oftentimes, we have rituals and routines in our time with God. I think about how the married man and woman kiss each other at night or as their leaving as habit. The kiss is better than nothing, and would certainly be missed if it didn’t happen, but it also is lackluster. Goodnight, dear… have a good day, dear. How uninspired. I think God feels that way when we go through the motions with him, saying the same things over again. The psalmist says, “In your presence there is the fullness of joy,” how amazing is that! He wants us to be full of joy, and I think there should be heart and pleasure in those interactions, otherwise it’s merely obligation. He wants to hear our hearts, not our words. The Lord’s Prayer as an example of a WAY to pray, a foundation that can be piled on with the ooey gooey, delicious, things of your choice in the moment, not as a rut.

Our Father, who art in heaven, you are the most wonderful, awesome being that ever existed.

You are the ruler and controller of this world and his kingdom in heaven.

Please take care of the people reading this, the government woes, and the things that cause us pain.

Forgive us, oh Lord, for forgetting to come to you, in your glory, and save us from ourselves. Amen.

May God’s munificence be seen clearly in you and those you love.

Til the blessed ‘morrow!