The Gift of a Good Day

What happened when three middle school students took the morning challenge.

A few weeks ago I wrote about morning seeking, the science of the body, and what I had come to understand about the Sun of Righteousness rising with healing in His wings.

That piece described what I had learned in my own life.

This piece is about what happened when I shared the practice with three middle school students.

If you have not read the first article, Could Waking Early Be Part of God’s Plan to Overcome ADD?, I would encourage you to start there. That piece explores the framework behind the practice. This article is simply a record of what happened when students tried it.

I want to tell you about all three of them because their stories are different, and each one reveals something the others cannot.

But I want to begin with one sentence.

It came from a twelve-year-old boy in class. He said it to another student without any prompting from me.

If you try the challenge, Dr. Polk is going to give you the gift of a good day.

That sentence became the title of this piece.

By the end, you’ll understand why.

The Boy the Principal Was Worried About

For many years I taught middle school in Christian schools where I also held counseling and pastoral responsibilities.

In one of those years, a principal brought a concern to me about a student who was having behavior problems and regularly getting into mischief.

The school was responding the way schools often respond: discipline, consequences, and repeated attempts to correct the behavior.

I looked at what they were describing and saw something different.

Not primarily a discipline problem.

A regulation problem.

I offered him a simple challenge.

• Wake BEFORE 6 AM.
• Spend time with the Lord during the morning hours.

The exact form was his choice.

During the week, he chose to wait for praise and worship at school. On weekends, he opened his Bible at home.

The two students who came later chose to read their Bibles when they woke.

The Lord met all three.

He started the next day.

After his first day, he came back and reported that he had had a good day.

I had previously told the students they would receive something for trying the challenge.

He reminded me.

You told me you would give me something.

I told him I already had.

I gave you a good day.

He thought about that for a few moments.

Then he agreed.

Then he asked for a piece of candy too.

I gave him one because I give kids candy for everything, and because middle schoolers can hold two true things at once.

A second student walked into the room during that conversation.

The first boy turned to him and said:

If you try the challenge, Dr. Polk is going to give you the gift of a good day.

He had absorbed what I said.

He had translated it into testimony.

And he did it without prompting.

He did not say, “It works.”

He did not say, “You should try it.”

He said the reward is the day itself.

The Cold and the Phone Call

Near the end of that first week, he came to school looking like he was coming down with a cold.

I called his guardian.

I explained the challenge and the circadian rhythm framework beneath it. I encouraged him to prioritize rest over the weekend.

The guardian thanked me.

Then I asked a simple question.

Have you noticed your son being more focused this week?

He immediately said yes.

What made that answer significant was that he had not known his son was waking early until I told him during that conversation.

He had simply been living with his son.

And he had noticed.

He even suggested that reduced screen time might also be helping.

I appreciated that observation.

The point is not that he agreed with my explanation.

The point is that he independently observed a change.

That weekend, with permission from both his guardian and teacher to rest, the boy continued waking at 5:45.

He opened his Bible on Saturday.

He opened his Bible on Sunday.

He returned to school Monday feeling well.

There is only one thing that gets a twelve-year-old boy out of bed before dawn on a weekend when he has been told he does not have to.

He had found Him.

What the Month Looked Like

At one point he decided he was going to wake at 4 AM.

I cautioned him that he did not need to do that.

He remembered the original instruction.

Any time before 6 AM.

He recalibrated.

He continued the practice for thirty days.

Behavior reports improved.

Academic reports improved.

About halfway through the month, I casually asked the principal whether he had been getting into trouble.

The principal confirmed that he had not.

Another teacher independently told me:

He has come a long way since the beginning of the year.

None of these observers knew the spiritual framework.

They simply saw a different student.

Two days during that month, his dog became seriously ill.

His countenance was somber.

He was grieving.

But he was grieving cleanly.

The dysregulated behavior patterns that previously emerged during stress did not appear.

The rhythm did not numb him.

It steadied him enough to feel what he should have been feeling.

That is what regulation often looks like.

Not the absence of emotion.

The ability to carry emotion without chaos.

The Stopping

At the end of the month, he stopped.

He said he was tired.

He said his guardian had told him he could stop.

I will not speculate about his reasons.

He is a child, and those reasons belong to him.

Within days, previous patterns began returning.

• Arguing.
• Not following directions.
• Invading personal space.
• Repeatedly asking for instructions that had already been given.

The same student.

The same classroom.

The same teacher.

The rhythm removed.

The pattern was difficult to ignore.

The rhythm came in and behavior changed.

The rhythm went out and behavior reverted.

I cannot account for every factor in a child’s life.

I can only report what I observed as his teacher.

The timing was striking enough that it demanded my attention.

The Late Student

The second student heard the testimony but did not act on it immediately.

He waited three weeks.

• No peer pressure.
• No group excitement.
• No immediate social influence.

Three weeks later, he chose to try it.

On his first day, he woke at 5:45.

He spent time with the Lord.

And he still arrived late to school.

I told him that happens to me sometimes too.

The goal is not a perfect morning.

The goal is a regulated heart inside the morning you actually got.

Later that same day he returned with another report.

He had not gotten in trouble once.

He said it with genuine surprise.

Then he called the experience life-changing.

This was a student who had previously been removed from my classroom because of behavior concerns.

Yet on day one he reached for the phrase “life-changing.”

And the first thing he did was tell another student.

The Girl Who Expected to Be Sleepy

The third student came from a Muslim family.

The challenge was the same.

• Wake before 6 AM.
• Read the Bible.

She expected to be tired all day.

Every instinct told her that waking earlier would produce less energy.

She tried it anyway.

When she came back, her report was simple.

So much energy.

She expected one outcome.

She experienced another.

Whatever conclusions readers draw from that, her testimony belongs alongside the others because she approached the challenge from a very different starting point.

What Three Witnesses Add Up To

Three students.

Three different stories.

The same core report.

• More focus.
• More alertness.
• More energy.

The first student provides the longest observation window and includes confirmation from multiple adults.

The second student provides a delayed response, separated from immediate group influence.

The third student approached the challenge with different expectations and a different faith background.

Different lives.

Different starting points.

Different angles.

Yet all three reported similar outcomes.

That is how testimony often works.

Different people encounter the same thing and describe it from their own perspective.

What This Adds Up To

A peer-to-peer testimony in a class.

A principal, teacher, and guardian independently noticing change.

A student who voluntarily maintained the practice on weekends.

Another who called it life-changing on the first day.

A girl whose expectations were overturned by her experience.

I am not making a clinical claim.

These were observations from a teacher’s classroom during a particular season.

But the pattern was striking.

The rhythm came in and behavior changed.

The rhythm went out and behavior reverted.

The adults who noticed the changes were not looking for evidence of a theory.

The student who experienced the greatest change could not stop telling other students about it.

If these observations raise questions for you, perhaps the invitation is worth considering.

You do not have to take my word for it.

Try it.

Observe.

Pay attention.

See what happens.

The Invitation

He is the Source.

The morning is the window.

The rhythm is the door.

The gift is the day itself.

He is already up.

He is already waiting.

The invitation remains open.

Come into His light.

Final Note

All Scriptures referenced are from the King James Version.

Be Berean.

Search these things out for yourself (Acts 17:11).

This is not the destination.

It is a door.