Each morning, I send out a first tweet that is a devotional thought God has given me for the day. Sometimes Scripture, sometimes a quote, and sometimes just a thought that came to me in prayer.
“Quiet time with God is like manna from Heaven. It comes each day, but it disappears with the dawn.” (unknown)
I often get responses from friends to my “first thoughts” like, “My first thought was, Cereal, or bagel?, or Did somebody turn the coffee on? I have similar thoughts…..but have tried over the last chapter of life to spend waking moments with a higher focus.
Many years ago, a mentor of mine gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received.
“Make your first conversation each morning, a conversation with God.”
So my goal has become this: The first thing I hear each morning is a Word from Him through Scripture or a devotional. And the first thing out of my mouth is a prayer to Him. Am I tempted to check email, or Twitter first thing? Oh yes. And I’m amazed at how many times, when I do read something else first, my day loses focus and my mood is less than it could be. But on the days when I spend those first moments and first conversation with God, things stay on a much more even keel.
Interested, but too busy to deal with books first thing in the morning? As much as I travel, I’ve found a couple of great tools for making this discipline portable. I might suggest the daily read from the One Year Bible or from YouVersion, particularly if you want to use your phone or blackberry. The YouVersion app for the iPhone and Blackberry are amazing, and may even be history making.
So what’s your first thought? Where does your first conversation go each day?
I hope that a First Thought, maybe better titled a First Tweet will help you in some small way.
follow me on Twitter and get your first thought on most days (I’m not perfect….ask my family)
This post originally appeared in 2009, and has been reposted as a result of the growing popularity of the daily #1stThought. Thanks for your comments. Keep them coming!
My fatherinlaw told me this week that he heard that when the 1st thing u do in the morning is check your email/tweets/facebook…that is what you have on your mind for the day…but if we started off right with Scripture we would have that on our minds for the day…
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Leanah McCombs. Leanah McCombs said: http://williamvanderbloemen.com/2009/10/thoughts-on-the-daily-first-thought/ [...]
Really William, I think that a “Final Thought” in the evening would be nice. It’s a comfort- sort of quick reality check- to hear a positive, uplifting word in the midst of a hundred typical facebook comments or “fooks,” as I like to refer to them.
A pastor in Murphy, NC whom I consider to be my spiritual adviser speaks often of his mornings. He reads from Oswald Chamber’s, “My Utmost for His Highest” and then spends an hour or two reading from the Bible, writing, praying, and meditating on Scripture.
It’s hard to imagine having such commitment, But he, like you have just written, finds his day incomplete without starting it in this way every single day!
Being relatively new to the internet, he’s just finding, I think what an enormous, effective tool it can be for a professional in any field. I would venture to guess that Christianity is the fastest growing sector, for lack of a better word, on the net today.
I hope you two will find time some day to share a conversation. I’m going to forward your first thought for THIS day to him.
Much love and thank you for the time you spend posting sobering and thoughtful tweetbits of reality!
Mark
[...] Ten Tweeps That Will Feed Your Soul Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet BoxTwitter has changed how people receive information, but I believe it has also changed how we can receive transformation. I’m amazed at the number of great quotes, spiritual thoughts, and insights come my way each day. Receiving those is a big part of why I started writing “First Thoughts.” [...]