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I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
I write about what matters...to Him.
               Sonya Contreras

Sunday Morning Excuses—Is It Worth It?


Do you wonder why you bother with church?
Getting everyone ready is an exercise in patience and perseverance. Satan works overtime in every house on Sunday mornings as families get ready to “worship.” 
After changing the baby, again, doing police control over the mob, and cramming everyone in the vehicle to arrive at church, fall out of the same vehicle and “act nice,” I often wondered if it was worth it.

That was just getting to church. Then the battle began of keeping a toddler happy and quiet through Sunday School and church—never mind me listening to the sermon. 
I would consul myself that my husband was getting encouraged and stimulated and he would lead his family to “worship.”
But then there were those Sundays (once a month), when my husband was gone with the army. I’d get the boys to church and hope they were “worshipping,” while I entertained a toddler.

We attended one church early in our marriage. After moving from the area, we returned to visit. They displayed nice little signs on their sanctuary doors, “Children are not allowed in the sanctuary. We provide a nursery for them.”
We ignored the sign. Our three-month old fussed, while I prepared to comfort him, the pastor from the pulpit said to my husband, “Joey, are you going to take care of that?” 
When we left, I told Joey I would never return.
I don’t have to wonder what Jesus thought about the sign. He had already rebuked his disciples for the same thing. “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” Matthew 19:14.

Today, I do not have babies or toddlers to “hinder me from worship.” (Children bring us to worship God.) Although Satan still works doubly hard in our home as we prepare to worship God.
It still takes an extra push to get me ready, especially now that my boys can drive. Always when my husband has army drill, I must push myself even harder to get ready in body and soul. Excuses for why I shouldn’t go plague me. 

How can God use my stubborn will to His glory?
It is a habit to attend, developed from childhood, but I still must do it each Sunday.

But more than a habit, it is a command from God not to forsake the assembly together of God’s people. “Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near” Hebrews 10:25.

I could give many excuses as to why attending seems not worth it. But God commands. And I must listen. And God gives commands for my good.
As I look down our pew and see our boys walking in truth and seeking God, I know, it is worth it. 


Displaying all 2 comments

I always have to answer to my spiritual counselor who will see right through the excuses like a window

Author of Biblical fiction, married to my best friend, and challenged by eight sons’ growing pains as I write about what matters.

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