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Sometimes I feel the least “Christian” when I’m on my way to church.
On Sunday morning, getting the entire family in the car – fully clothed and completely clean – is a feat in itself. Let’s not even talk about the state of our hearts. Because crisply-ironed shirts and scrubbed faces can’t cover up the grime of pride and selfishness that always seems to surface on our Sunday morning ride to worship.
- We fight over who wears the blue shirt and who gets stuck with the orange.
- We fight over who’s first out the door.
- We fight over who gets to sit behind Dad in the car.
- We fight over people talking when others are trying to sing.
- We fight over people singing when others are trying to talk.
Then we pour into the church building with a slapped-on smile.
In the off-chance you can relate, I’ll let you in on a secret. About a month ago, I had a “mommy meltdown” over all the meltdowns that were happening on Sunday morning. And I came to the realization that if I wanted to arrive at church with a heart prepared to worship, then worship had to start earlier. For both me and the boys!
Now, each family member picks another person to pray for on the way to church. Our prayers are short and simple, but they help focus our hearts outward instead of inward (James 4:1). And while the boys still fight and pick on each other, they are learning the significance of praying for others as well as how to pray.
Most of the time, the boys choose to pray for their friends at church. But, I also try to encourage them to pray for our church leaders as well – our pastor as he delivers his message, our pastor’s wife who leads in their preschool class, and their Dad who leads in worship.
I’m hopeful that through our prayer times they will understand the great privilege of serving together in a local body of believers. But ultimately, I’m hopeful they will arrive at church wearing a spirit that is ready to worship, rather than frowns and scowls.
What do you do to get to church on time and with a heart prepped for worship? Leave your thoughts in the comments. I think we all could use some new ideas!
Great idea for heart change! Love it. To get to church on time, we start early. Rushing never helps us (me) get in the right frame of mind. So it means I’m up early and first but it makes it is more pleasant. We’ll often play worship music too, at home and in the car.
Yes, we also do praise music while we eat breakfast on Sundays – it makes such a huge difference to help set a mood of praise! Thanks for that comment, Kristen!
What a great idea! I’m stealing it for sure:)
You have no idea how happy this post makes me. And you know exactly what i mean why
LOL – me too Nive!
Thank you so much for tackling this subject! Getting to church with four young kids is no easy task! I usually pray outloud on the way to church, but I love the idea of having the kids pray too!
Callie – I hear ya! It doesn’t stop the fighting 100% but it certainly has helped us!
We have had this conversation so many times. Sundays are the hardest day of the week to get out of the house with happy hearts! We have our clothes set out the night before with everything ready to go. Stressing out at the last minute to gather Bibles, notebooks, etc. together makes it worse!
Emily – I think it is one of Satan’s great schemes against the family – to cause disunity when our key characteristics as believers should be unity.
I find that if I work to still take my quiet time in the morning, pray and listen to worship music then it helps my attitude be right in order to work through any grumbles with my girls. You are so right, that it is a matter of preparing our heart way before we reach the church doors.
Prepare, prepare, prepare. I go over with my kids on Saturday night what they are wearing the next morning. I iron everything and hang everything right by their room. I iron my clothes and my husband’s and set them out. Music in the morning and an easy or already-made breakfast helps too.
Even so, Sunday mornings are always crazy, but not as crazy if I do those things!
Diana, you are right! Preparation is half (if not more!) the battle!
We’ve been talking about this a lot at our house too. It’s going to be super tough tomorrow morning for Daylight Savings! I often think about how we would hardly consider it okay to show up late for a special birthday party for celebration…why do I not prepare better for the day that I go to the Lord’s house for worship? I’m glad I’m finally getting around to reading this post, Melissa! I’ll be sharing it on the FB page!
thanks for sharing it Ruth – this post was a long time in the making! I only recently figured out this little trick. I’ll let you know how long it lasts!