Sunday Mornings

I love Sunday mornings. They are different from what they were when I grew up, but I really appreciate what they have become for me.

In case you don't know, when I was a kid, I vowed never to marry a pastor for a variety of reasons, which are too many to discuss now. One of those was that I wanted a "normal" family life, which included, in my mind, a husband with a regular work schedule and the fact that we could go to church as a family on Sundays. (And yet I did marry a pastor... I am grateful that God had a different plan for me, and since Ian was already a pastor when we met I would have no one to blame for this lapse in commitment anyway. :)

Ian works on Sunday mornings, doing a variety of things for and during the three church services, and often for afternoon or evening gatherings and meetings. So we usually go to our Saturday night church service, and he goes to work on Sunday mornings while I stay home with the baby.

In spite of the fact that this arrangement was never something I envisioned, I've come to appreciate it. I like going to a church service in the evening because I am alert for worship, fully awake to focus on God and process the message, and more relaxed and less rushed than in the morning.

And Sunday mornings are a time that I really enjoy. Ian leaves very early, and so when the baby wakes up, she and I have some time with just the two of us. Since Ian's not around, we have breakfast and get dressed and take it slower than on weekday mornings. Ian's cousin usually leaves for church around nine-thirty or ten, which coincides with Alexandra's morning nap, so then I have a couple hours to myself. I typically allow a bit of extra time for prayer and Bible study, and I look over the sermon notes from the night before. Then I have time to write or clean up the house and to prepare myself mentally for the rest of the day and the week ahead. Sunday mornings allow me to kind of ease out of the weekend and into the week, instead of feeling pushed headlong into Monday morning.

This doesn't happen every Sunday; sometimes we have commitments on Saturday nights, or if I am doing something for church services, I have to be there on Sunday morning. But most of the time, I am able to use Sunday morning as a refreshing time to gather my thoughts before the week starts.