Verace Via’s Morning Devotions are 8 to 12 minutes of biblical encouragement. The concept is to record a video of yourself sharing your thoughts from a short passage of Scripture, and to do this early in the morning. It’s a good practice to give the first portion of your day to God, and that’s what we’re trying to model with these devotions. Even though we may not look our best, or even be at our sharpest, we’re showing others how important it is to start each day with the Lord.

If you would like to submit a Morning Devotions video, we’d love to have it! Here’s what you need to know:

Two Principles

The first principle of these videos is to give God the first portion of your day. Do whatever you need to do to be awake and alert, but please don’t do more than necessary. My routine is to brush my teeth, splash some water on my face, and look over my notes. I never look at my phone before recording, and I always make sure I’m the first one up so that nothing distracts me. Your routine is probably going to be different than mine, but don’t worry about looking or performing your best. Give God the first portion of your day, and trust him with the rest.

The second principle is to give others what God has already given you. Please don’t open your Bible to a random passage you’ve never read before and start talking. That might be a helpful way for God to teach you something, but it’s not helpful for others. We encourage one another with what God has already poured into us. Let us drink a single cup from the deep well that God has prepared within you. For example, my first Morning Devotions are based on my personal devotions in Ephesians, which I started doing a year before I even had this idea. I look over my notes and then start talking. What God has already given me is the foundation for what I share with others. Sure, new stuff comes out as I talk, but it’s all built on that personal time I had with God long ago.

How to Make a Morning Devotions Video

First, find a quite place and time to record. You don’t want someone coming into the room in the middle of your video, or loud noises to distract others from what you’re saying. I try to make sure that I’m up before anyone else because my office is close to the kitchen, which is always the noisiest room in any house. Make sure the background of your video is appropriate and not distracting, either. I reorganized my office because I only have one good wall to record in front of.

Second, use good lighting so that we can see you clearly. One of the benefits of the social media influencer craze is that it’s now cheap and easy to buy decent lighting for video. I use a simple ring light for my morning devotions, but a desk or floor lamp would also work well. It’s best to have light coming directly at your face or from slightly above you, as well as standard overhead lighting. Turn on the ceiling lights in your room and put a lamp at roughly face level and you should be good to go.

Third, your phone likely takes great video, but to capture good audio it will need to be about 6 feet from you. This will be fine as long as there aren’t any other noises nearby. If you use your phone, make sure you orient it sideways (landscape), not vertically (portrait). Please do not send me vertical videos, I can’t use them! Center yourself in the frame side-to-side, and make sure the top of your head is just below the top of the video. The image below is a pretty good example of framing.

The Morning Devotions Script

Here’s the script that you need to follow.

Good morning. Welcome to Morning Devotions with Verace Via (Ver-atch-ay Vee-uh).

My name is [your name].

Make a comment like: “I love to read God’s word together.” or “It’s good to spend time with the Lord first thing in the morning.”

-Pause-

Today we’re going to be looking at [the passage you’ve chosen].

Let’s pray before we open God’s word together.

Your prayer should include thanking God for his word and asking him to speak to us. Feel free to include whatever else you think is appropriate.

-Pause-

Announce your passage and then read it.

Share what’s on your heart and mind for 6 to 10 minutes.

Close in prayer.

How to Submit Your Video

Once you have your video recorded you’ll need to send it to me for review. If accepted, I’ll edit your video, add music and titles, and prepare it for upload to our YouTube channel. You only need to do the talking! If your video is accepted, you’ll likely be asked to do at least two more Morning Devotions videos so that you’ll have a week’s worth of them online. (At this stage I’m hoping to release 3 videos per week.)

If your video is not accepted, I’ll provide an explanation as well as some constructive feedback. The most likely scenario is that something went wrong from a technical standpoint, and I’ll just ask you to record it again. If the content of your video is not quite up to par, I’ll provide some coaching and ask you to resubmit.

You can submit your videos by uploading them to a sharing site like iCloud or Dropbox. Just send a link with your contact information to awh@veracevia.com. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me at that email address. Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to watching your video!