Your Morning Routine Toolkit176on my phone, apps that help me study the Bible, and social
media prompts that remind me to pray for my family.
Mountains can become molehills with a little preparation.
The Impact of Preparation
Andrew Wyeth, a twentieth- century American painter, once
showed his brother Nat some drawings he was working on
in preparation for his painting of Lafayette’s quarters near
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. There was a sycamore tree behind
the building, and the drawings Andrew showed Nat were of
the gnarled roots and trunk of the tree. Puzzled, Nat asked
him, “Where’s all that in the picture?”
“It’s not in the picture, Nat,” Andrew said. “For me to get
what I want in the part of the tree that’s showing, I’ve got to
know thoroughly how it is anchored in the back of the house.”^3
Andrew could paint with confidence, accuracy, and au-
thority because he had thoroughly prepared for every detail of
his work, even the details no one would see.
We have no idea what today may hold. Today may blend
into the next forty years as an ordinary day, or it may threaten
everything you are— as one day did for Antoinette Tuff. The
challenge here is to make the choice to prepare for our pur-
pose— to stack the cards in our favor so when our alarm goes
off in the morning, meeting with God and following His direc-
tion, whatever it may be, is the easiest and most natural thing
to do. All it takes is a little preparation.