How Do You Start Your Day?

Today I was talking to a friend about practicing a few spiritual disciplines in order to be closer to God. She told me how she had been starting her days in recent years - by playing a computer game. She had the "revelation" this morning that there was a much better way to start her day which was by practicing silence, solitude and prayer.

For some reason, today's reading brought to mind the prayer of St. Francis of Assissi:
    

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

 

What do you think our lives would be like if every Christian used this or a similar prayer to start everyday? Do you have another one that you use that immediately puts your focus on God and His amazing Grace and Love? If so, please share with me and other readers.