Honoring the Lord on His Day

Give yourself permission to let go of things you'd like to do on Sunday if they interfere with what is most important in honoring the Lord on the day set apart for Him. For my family, this means cold cereal on Sunday morning. We have pancakes, eggs, or oatmeal on weekdays and I would love to have something nicer than granola or boxed cereal on the most important day of the week. My husband would love to sleep in, just to have a day of the week that we sleep in (he works all other days), and even more so when we keep our kids up late on Saturday. But as much as we would like to do these things it is even more important to us to attend the particular church service we've chosen and that makes our Sunday morning schedule a little too cramped for special breakfasts or sleeping in. In fact, my husband and I wake up a quarter hour earlier than usual (poor hubby!) and we don't allow time to prepare a breakfast nicer than boxes of cereal, milk, and bananas.
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It was difficult to let go of what we would like our Sunday morning to look like but the morning is much more peaceful now. We had to look beyond our ideals and recognize what is truly most important to us. Trying to fit in my dream, my husband's dream, and the reality of the time available to us just made our Sundays rushed and miserable. None of us were getting what we wanted and instead of making pleasant memories or honoring the Lord we were hurrying our kids and getting ourselves out of sorts. It also helps to remember that this decision is for a season: as our kids get older and don't need us to help them get dressed we might be able to sleep in a little longer or have a slightly nicer breakfast. We might choose for a later church service at some point or we might find the service we attend gets rescheduled a half hour or an hour later than it is now. But whether or not this Sunday morning routine changes much, we need to know the difference between what is most important and what we can let go of. Knowing the difference allows us to adjust the schedule to improve our ability to honor the Lord on His day.
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Linked to Works for Me Wednesday and Simple Lives Thursday