Yesterday was a glorious day. Sunday reclaimed itself as the best day of the week. For over a year, Sunday had been running in the middle-of-the-pack… certainly better than Monday, but far behind Friday and Saturday. So why has Sunday vaulted back to it’s rightful place… at the top of the list? My theory is that happiness on Sunday is directly correlated to the START TIME of church.
For the past year my family has been fighting the good fight… going to church that starts at 1:00pm and finishes at 4:00pm. It’s been a losing battle all the while… as the toddler warriors rebel against their hopeless parents during the miserable struggle that occurs during their normal nap time. Over the course of the past year we’ve tried every tactic possible to get our kids to sit quietly through church… crayons… stuffed animals…. Lucky Charms… all to no avail.
For a few weeks this past Fall I thought I might have turned the tide… When my 2-year-old daughter got fussy… I would take her out into the foyer and we would play a little game…. searching the entire church for every picture of Jesus. The tactic worked for a 3-4 weeks, until she memorized where all the pictures were… then became a race where I would chase her around the building as she yelled out “Daddy there’s another Jesus”.
Everything came to a head about 3 weeks ago… both of our kids were SO FUSSY after sacrament meeting… we had no choice but to surrender and take them both home to bed. The kids won!
It’s amazing how different Sunday can be when church starts at 9:00am. This week we had no trouble getting to church on-time (helps when the kids aren’t so fussy). For the first time in a year I am proud to say we actually scored ourselves a cushioned pew… I had almost forgotten what they felt like… for some reason I just don’t feel the spirit as well when I am sitting on a cold metal chair in the overflow! Now don’t get me wrong…. church wasn’t exactly a cake-walk (I think I’m still several years away from that), but it was nice to have at least some sanity left in me by the time church ended at noon…
Plus… I must say… the post-church enjoyment factor increases by a factor of 50 when you have time to read the newspaper, take a nap, watch some football, and still have time left over to help your wife mash the potatoes as she prepares Sunday dinner. I can feel my testimony growing again!