GETTING READY FOR CHURCH

GETTING READY FOR CHURCH 

                                              

Written by: Jenny Calvert

Children are a gift from the Lord, a reward from a mother’s womb. A young man’s sons are like the arrows in a soldier’s hand. The man who fills his quiver with sons will be very blessed. Psalms 127:3-5 (ERV)

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16 (ESV)

Sunday morning for our family was like this: The alarm went off and off I’d go. I would nurse the baby, change his diaper and get him dressed. I would wake up the other four children. The older children would dress and shower themselves. The younger ones needed assistance with dressing and grooming. Baths had been given the night before and clothes picked out. With much protest, I combed tangles from my daughter’s curly hair. I fixed breakfast. I cleaned up spilled milk. I dressed and ran a comb through my hair. We searched for something lost. (There was always something missing). We started for the car. The baby would spit up on me. Back in the house I would go to change myself and the baby. Then the mad dash to church. On the way, I would break up a fight between siblings, because the perpetrator had made a mean face. We would run into church, take up almost an entire pew and listened to a sermon on how one should get up an hour earlier in the morning to spend time in prayer.

An hour earlier to spend time in prayer? “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I thought. It’s a miracle we even managed to get there at all. Why am I telling this story? I am telling it because this is for all the families struggling just to get to church on Sunday morning.

 It’s okay if you are harried and really want to sell one of your children (just teasing). It’s okay if you have a big coffee stain on the front of your shirt. It’s okay that you did not get up an extra hour earlier because you were up three times in the night with the baby. It’s okay when you look down at your feet and have on two different shoes. (I did that once). It’s okay if you have to shush your children five times during the sermon. Why is it okay? Because you are there and God loves you, and if you didn't make it to church, He still loves you. For nothing can separate us from His love through Christ Jesus.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for loving and accepting us just the way we are. Thank you for helping us through busy times in our lives. Be with all the families trying to raise their children knowing you.

In Jesus’Name,                                                                                                                                       Amen