Reading, praying...thinking.
Jesus searching...that would be a more appropriate title. Where is He in my family's lives? What role does He play? What importance do we place on Him? on seeking Him? on worshipping Him?
I just finished a book that has me thinking. Making Sunday Special by Karen Burton Mains. This is an older book...but I was able to get it through our inter-library loan system.
Do we rest on Sundays like we should? Not so that we can be lazy...but so that we can be refreshed from focusing on Him and worshipping Him in a corporate setting, with our church family?
Can I truthfully answer all these above questions the way I would like to?
Here are a couple of excerpts from the book that really caught my attention:
from page 76:
One leaves church all too frequently Sunday after Sunday having peered into the closet full of anxieties, but never having truly exorcised the monsters who inhabit its dark territories. "Good," we think, "another Sunday behind us. Don't have to face that again for a whole week! Am I relieved!" And we leave, having no idea that we've just participated in a form of godliness without the power of godliness; that our Sunday attendance has been perfunctory, without meaning; an intellectual exercise in neutral without ever shifting into the high gear of heart and soul beating upward toward worship.
from page 84:
If we neglect to make Sunday special in our homes, we must not shake our heads one day when we discover that we have raised children who are spiritually wiggly; who cry and whine and are distracted from things of the soul; who develop intense emotional dislikes regarding church; who are defiant toward those very things we hold dear; whose greatest deficiency is the inability to love God with all their heart, mind, and strength; who have become part of a statistical population segment known as those who have fallen away from Christianity. We have simply raised children suffering from the effects of childhood spiritual neglect.
I don't know that I can currently answer those above questions the way I'd like to. I will continue my Jesus Searching...
Joli, I loved your last blog post about making Sunday special. This is always something that I am working on and thinking about, especially with having little ones. I love our family’s Sundays just because of all the things you mentioned. They help me feel rejuvenated for the week ahead, spiritually fed, closer to God, recommitted to live and honor Him the way that I have promised to do. Not that we do bad things the rest of the week, but we try to make Sunday different and set apart from the rest of the days out of respect to our Heavenly Father and in order to help us really be able to focus on being spiritually fed. There are a whole lot of things that we don’t do on Sunday (yard work, shopping, cleaning, exercising…the list goes on) and while we don’t do those things, I think it’s the things we DO instead of them that make the difference for me. We go to church and really focus on being there to remember Him. We rest. We spend time together at home doing simple things together as a family. We visit extended family members. We bring treats to and visit people new people in our neighborhood. We are careful to only listen to, watch, or read things that help us feel closer to God. I guess I just loved your post and it made me think some more about why it’s important to consecrate Sunday. Thanks for sharing that! I love your perspectives! - Laura
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