When Lionel Richie sang “Easy like Sunday morning,” he obviously wasn’t referring to a typical family getting ready for church. Not ours, at least. Misplaced clothing, lost shoes, sleepy-headed stragglers, flaring tempers: all this and more fight against us on any given Sunday.
This week our 10-year-old son got in the car in dress short in spite of being told multiple times to put on his new khakis; thanks to a misunderstanding, our 6-year-old daughter took off her tights and then we couldn’t find them. After arguing with the son and getting frustrated with the daughter, I slammed the car door in a mommy temper fit.
Sunday mornings have a way of bringing out the ugly in all of us.
Halfway to church I apologized for slamming the door. If I can’t admit my mistakes to my kids, how can I ever expect them to admit theirs to me? Besides, allowing your kids to falsely believe that you’re perfect impedes true communication.
No one wants to confess faults to someone who doesn’t appear to have any.
The devil doesn’t want getting to church to be easy. We’re doing the right thing, and doing the right thing is just plain hard sometimes; however, it’s important for our kids to see that in spite of the obstacles, we just keep plugging away until we get there, week after week. Even if two of the kids aren’t wearing shoes.
What’s your story? Is it “easy like Sunday morning” at your house or a weekly struggle?
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All 31 Days of Real Life posts can be found here. Other 31 Dayers can be found here.
For the most part, our Sunday mornings have a miraculous peace poured forth on them, but on occasion, I can offer a temper tantrum of my own. The more I find myself in Christ, the less those fits tend to happen…I think it is because I am not working as hard to please others. I still have a long way to go, however!
Just yesterday I said “Why on earth is it so difficult to get out of the house on a Sunday morning???” Yesterday was one of those days where I was so behind. I have a baby to get ready for church and myself and it always just seems to take forever. We ended up getting to church half an hour late. As we pulled up, my brother-in-law offered to take in the diaper bag for me. As he picked it up, he fainted and fell to the pavement. Thankfully he was okay but in that moment my mother-in-law (who we had rode to church with) said to my brother-in-law “We are going home.” I almost hopped back in the car and went with them. But I realized how much effort it took to actually get there in the first place so I decided to stay. Later, my MIL and BIL came back to church because neither wanted to miss the service or Sunday School. There was just such a drawing. And it was a wonderful Sunday. There was great community and fellowship that day at church and each of us left feeling so loved, recharged and filled-up for the week to come. In reading your post, I realized that you’re right, the devil does want to do everything in his power to keep us home. There had been some tantrums, harsh words and hairy moments before even getting to church but God ministered to each of so much. I plan to brainstorm some ways to help us get out of the house a little easier on a Sunday. Part of it will also include just plain old prayer – asking the Lord to help us get ready, to keep our attitudes in check and help us focus on why we are getting out of the door on an early Sunday morning. Thanks for letting me share. 🙂 So excited for your series!
Lisa, congrats on the peaceful Sunday mornings!
Mandi, whew! I’m thankful your brother-in-law offered to take the diaper bag instead of the baby, and that everything is okay. How great that all of you ended up being there after all.
We have friends who used to set aside their kids’ clothes on Sunday afternoon for the following Sunday. We never seem to get it done on Saturday nights, and we know how crazy Sunday mornings are. Change of seasons is especially tough.
Oh. My. Word. Sunday’s were the worst when my kids were little. My hubby didn’t help back then either. So, I usually flew around the house and out the door in a rage — at the kids of course. The worst days ever were Mother’s Day though. We’d invariably have a screaming match at the house and arrive at church all pretty and put together and they’d hand me a rose and say “Happy MOther’s Day”. Little did they know I was feeling like a horrible failure on the inside. I am so thankful God got a hold of me and I squared away my attitude before the kids were in high school. I didn’t want them to remember me as the screaming, yelling, nagging mom. It was worth the battle of biting my tongue to have the relationship I have with my kids today. BTW – they are all serving in the church as leaders. God is so good, even when I was so bad!
Sundays – definitely not a day of rest for me. The cooking and finding of misplaced stuff doesn’t take a day off.
Alene, it feels good to let it out, huh? 🙂 I love your honesty and the happy ending to your story.
Hey, AM! The cooking is killer, isn’t it? We have lunch at church on 1st and 3rd Sundays (and if there’s a 5th) and that’s what really got me frazzled this Sunday; I even baked a pie with crust from scratch. It was 35 minutes from when I hopped in the shower until I walked out the front door. It’s no wonder I was out of patience.
Oh our Sunday mornings are never easy. It’s always rushed, kids leaving crying, mom leaving frustrated, forgetting to eat, etc. I remember that song, flash from the past.
Barbie, it was stuck in my head all day. lol
I had to laugh out loud on that one. Thats exactly my life…so much so I read it out loud to my husband. Its so unbelievably hard to get out the door on Sunday and for our Wednesday youth group. The fighting is horrible. No, your not wearing that, get that look off your face, I know you didnt brush that rats nest of hair and go and fix it, dont even look at your sister or touch her. The list goes on and on. I get so frustrated and ask my self why I bother. I see them in church and they look lifeless like we are holdng a gun to their head to keep them there. Then, at night sometimes we have bible trivia and they know the stuff, so they are learning even if they look lifeless. So, no matter how many dirty looks they shoot me in church, I know we are doing the right thing.
Tami, I love how the comments are fleshing out my story, too. After all the craziness, my husband told all the kids that they needed to sit with us in church instead of with friends. My 14yod sat next to me and did that lifeless look you mentioned. You’re right, though, they are listening and learning, even if we get some dirty looks along the way. It is the right thing just being there.
Ha! Well, our Sunday mornings are a bit crazy since we have to not only get to church, but DO the church (being a church planting family). It has been like that most of our marriage. When my girls were little I had to get them ready for church by myself because my husband was already there getting ready for set up and the band to practice. Now that my kids are old enough to get themselves ready and out the door, we have a different type of rush in the mornings than back in the day, but it is still hard. Not quite as many tantrums though. At least I don’t have to get them fed and dressed 🙂
Oh, it was a relief to read that post!! I thought things would get better as they got older and could eat and dress themselves, but the drama just changed! Now it is, “No, leggings are not considered pants”, “But I sat on the end last week; I want to sit next to mom” or “Why do we have to go? Church is so boring!?” I never really though about it before, but maybe the enemy just loves Sunday mornings for that reason…hoping we will just give up and let him win. And then there are those rare, beautiful Sundays when everything goes calmly and I can actually focus on the Mass…what a blessing those are! 🙂
Wow. It is like you are in my house peeking on me! LOL This happened to us just this last Sunday and I found myself apologizing. Thank you for being so open, honest and sharing with us!
Melissa, my husband was just ordained as a deacon and this Sunday will be his first 9 a.m. deacons’ meeting. I’m trying to convince myself we can get ready early and won’t need separate cars (we’re usually pushing it to arrive by 10:30). We’ll see. 😉
Melissa C., you’re right, it’s just a whole new kind of drama as they age. Instead of lost clothing issues, it’s inappropriate clothing issues. 🙂
Joy, yes, it’s always crazy, but I do think it’s important to apologize when we lose it. lol