Worship - Part 1

This past week I spoke @ MOPS. I have never been to a Mom's of Preschoolers meeting. This was the last formal meeting of the year so they had a guest speaker...me! Multi-generations were represented because the Mom Mentors were also at the meeting. I was given the topic: Balancing It All...which morphed into: Balancing the Right Things. The pre-morph topic felt a little too abstract to me- like using a debit or credit card. In my world those cards seem to represent all of the money in the world available to me. :) So, the Fields' had to switch to the cash system. That is something manageable and measurable to me. It's real and makes sense. That's the post-morph topic: Balancing the Right Things.
1. First Thing First: Worship - In our families, Lord's Day Worship should be a non-negotiable. It is commanded. It is separate from other days. Our whole week should be leading to this pinnacle event. If you want to see your children begin to structure all of life around worship and begin to see them connect and start to depend on their community of faith- start moving toward Sunday.
What does this look like? Let's start with Sunday and work backwards. We get up and get ready for worship. We try to keep this day open so that we can hang out with the people that we worship with. We eat with them, talk about the sermon, share about our week and how God moved on our behalf, our struggles and our sins. See, the believer begins their week with rest! Sunday is the first day of the week. We, in a sense, are entering into our rest at the beginning of every week. Beautiful re-creation! It's the day that we show up to watch God perform.
Now let's back up to Saturday. On Saturday my entire view is toward Sunday. I think about Sunday lunch. What are we having? Who are we having over? I do not commit to things that are going to have me or my family out too late. I plan things that are complete around dinner. We don't do late movies or concerts, sporting events or hanging out with friends till 2 a.m.. After dinner I have everything that my kids need for Sunday worship laid out on the table. That would be: shoes, clothes, glasses, bible, church bag with snacks...etc) and I have breakfast on the bar for the next morning: muffins, donuts, etc. We have to be walking out of the house no later than 9:50 a.m.. Now, let me speak freely. This is when I usually let out a big sigh when I am talking with someone about this because they usually say or think - "That's too much work." Do I even need to go into all of the problems I have with that statement? I see parents bust their backsides to re-pack back packs, pack snacks, fruit break, sign papers, layout clothes for the next day, feed them breakfast and get them all out of the house by 7:30. What one does communicates more than one what one says. They know what the important things are to you. Why do we put that much strain, effort, preparation for things that are not commanded? Why? Why do we delight in those things and not in corporate worship?
Now, let's back up to Friday
- This is the night that we usually plan our late events, late dates, late concerts and late hang outs. Yes, I know that all of these things do not happen on Friday nights. I do not think that the measure of your Christianity hangs on weather or not you go to a James Taylor Concert, that happens to be on a Saturday night. But I will say this- on the night of my Senior Prom my mom & dad allowed me to stay out very late. Very, Very late. After breakfast, my Dad told me to go get ready for church. I knew that the next morning I would be worshiping with my family. Here I sit typing 20 years later. If I am going to run my kids, or myself all day & night, I want to do it on a day when they have the whole next day to rest.
The rest of the week: Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday, for us, looks something like this:
On Monday I might say to my girls: Who in our church body can we send a nice card to?
On Tuesday I can say: Who in our church body can we pray for?
On Wednesday I say: Who do we worship with that we can have over for lunch or dinner?
On Thursday: How can our family serve another family?
*note- This might feel mechanical at first.

Some of you are probably thinking, "I don't have time to do this." As a believer, all of life should look something like this. We all have the same amount of time. Hopefully your pot is being stirred a little...Hopefully you're asking, "Why is it SO important to center everything around corporate worship?"

Simply put- Because the Bible tells us too. Where are we on a journey to? ALL of life is a journey that will culminate in full and final corporate worship.
All of life HERE should be a miniature copy of our life THERE. The NOW and the NOT YET.

What would you say your life is centered around now? What needs to change in order for you to have a Sunday view?

(to be continued : 2. Second Thing Second)